Shadow's of the heart
by Shadow.R.Chaos
Summary: like everyone Ranma has a dark side, but unlike normal people his darkside is a demon that is tired of Ranma taking all the hits for everyone else.
1. Chapter 1

I only wish I owned Ranma ½ or any other Anime. Please don't sue me. I don't have any money as is.

A/N rewritten fit spelling errors

Shadow's of the Heart.

Hate. Love. & a new beginning.

Ranma sat at the table of the Tendo Dojo, once again facing off against his most dangers of foes. Akane's cooking. As he sat there having a staring contest with the living being that had been dead when Akane has started with it, his father and Soun were yelling at him to eat. 'They just want me to eat it so they don't have to.' he thought bitterly.

'So why don't you make them. It wouldn't be that hard, there pushovers. Or kill Akane and you'd never have to worry about it again.' A dark voice told him from the other side of the table. Glancing up he saw a shadowy figure standing over the table looking at him.

"oh shut up." Ranma grumbled back. Now to most people this thing would scare them shitless, and had this been the first time to see it Ranma would be no exception, however Ranma had been seeing this thing for along time. Unfortunately for Ranma he had said that out loud and was heard by the creator of the monster on the table, the one he was suppose to eat.

"WHAT WAS THAT?" Akane yelled angrily, summoning her mallet she charged at him screaming "RANMA NO BAKA!" and sent our favourite pig tail martial artist into LEO.

Sailing through the air Ranma reviewed resent events in his mind. 'Well at least I got out of eating that crap.' he humoured to himself bitterly.

"It would have been easier my way you know." The Dark thing replied. "Like with the fallen Phoenix, kill them and they will not bother you anymore." The shadowy being was flying along side him on a pair of black bat like wings.

Turning himself around in the air as to land on his feet Ranma responded as he had been doing a lot since Saffron "Look that was a one time thing, I needed to protect everyone. And once again my foot got in my mouth, I didn't mean to say I loved the bitch. I look at Kasumi and Nabiki as family, and it would hurt them to see Akane hurt. I own you twice on that event but I'm not going to kill anyone, as per our deal you can use my body on the nights of the full moon as long as you DON'T kill anyone that doesn't deserve to die."

"And I have held to our deal. For use of my powers when yours are not enough, which has been many a time since the cat fist, I use you body three days a month, I even let you have the hours of light." It was true since the Cat Fist training this, demon had been talking with Ranma, that was were Ranma had gotten the advance healing, speed, and strength. The demon had given Ranma even more powers as their deal wore on but he rarely ,if ever, used them. The last time he had used the Demons powers was the fight with Saffron, and he killed the Phoenix god with one hit after tapping the power, then using the same power he had returned Akane to the land of the living.

What the demon got out of there deal? A chance to feed, one a month for three days the Dark being would fly to the nearest city, kill and drink the blood of thugs or criminals of the worse sort. He mostly stuck to killing Rapists and Murderers, that was one of the only reasons Ranma didn't full out deign the beast, it was only killing trash.

This wasn't where the problem lie though. No, the problem was since he grabbed hold of the full power of the demon in China, and then the failed Wedding here, he was having trouble not using the power of the demon. He had grown to hate everyone here, except for a small few. And they could be counted on one hand with fingers to spare. The more he hated, anything, the more the demonic power would seep into him, in one fight with Happosai, Kuno, and Mousse he had ended up frying all three with a blast of Black lightning making them light up like Christmas trees.

As Ranma landed he turned about face and started to figure out were he was this time. 'Knowing Akane I'm on the other side of Tokyo.'

"That's a safe bet." the shadowy Jabberwocky said. (1)

Ranma looked at the beast. "You know I have yet to figure out a better name for you then Idolion."

"Ranma you must remember to speak to me in your mind less people think you're going insane. You don't want to end up being associated with Kuno do you?" Ranma blenched at that thought. Ranma's shadow nodded "Good, as for now just refer to me a Ran I am after all a part of you."

Ranma thought about it for a second, it was better then any name he came up with. 'sure, it's sad all this time and you were the one to come up with a name, I guess I really am an idiot like everyone says.'

Ran chuckled "no it just means that our wife well be naming the children." Ran then looked "we are in Juuban at your fastest run it'll take 4 ½ hours to make it back, and that's without stopping and we haven't feed yet, also tonight is the first night of the full moon."

Ranma gulped and looked at the moon which was out in the day light sky, it was almost full and by tonight it would be the first night of it's fullest. Tonight he would have to let out the killer in him in order to up hold his honour, 'to up hold honour I must do something dishonourable.'

"You're thinking to far into this Ranma, I'm only doing what I need in order to survive. You people kill cows and other things to live, I'm not human so it's not cannibalism. Besides I am only eating once a month where you eat a full cow worth of food a day." Ran said off handily.

Ranma sighed as he started to roof hop his way home, however he stopped when he saw a gang of thugs attacking a little girl, she looked very badly beaten and her clothing was torn in a lot of places. Ranma stopped and started to growl, it only worsen when both saw one thug reach out and pull off the girls shirt completely, then Ran started to growl himself. Jumping off the building they two twisted in midair so that they would land in a punch aimed of one of the thugs head. "My day, I want this fight." Ran said as they impacted gang member making a loud _crack_ noise. Ranma nodded releasing control over his body to his inner demon.

After the first hit a large cloud of dust was kicked into the air obscuring Ran from view, until he lifted his head and two bright glowing red eyes came into view, his now free hair swaying in the wind. Then the attack begins, noticing that the girl was still awake and watching Ran avoided killing blows, for now. Throwing the gang around like papers in the wind, as soon as he had finished his quick but brutal fight he returned to the topless girl at hand, Ranma was blushing like mad in the back of there mind but Ran kept their face impassive. The girl was about there age if a year younger, she had violet hair darker then Shampoo's and matching eyes, however in contrary to the Amazon this girl had a very meek look to her. Taking off Ranma's shirt Ran tossed it at her. "Here. Your shirts done for put this on, I'll take to a payphone so that you can call your folks."

The girl nodded quickly and pull the over sized shirt over her chest, the shirt reached he knees showing just how small she was compared to Ranma. Walking out of the ally was so much simpler then coming in for both of them. "Hotaru Tomoe." the girl squeaked out after they left the ally.

"Huh?" Ran asked, fingering the money he stole from then thugs and trying to ignore the burning he was feeling from the sun while looking for a Payphone. 'that chestnut fist sure comes in handy Ranma.'

"My name is Hotaru Tomoe." Hotaru said again, a little more firmly although not much.

Ran ferruled his brow at that, 'Why do I know that name?' he thought as he tried to remember. "Name's Ranma." Ran said. Then he noticed her getting a little scared from his look. Sighing he forced a smile "I work at night so I'm not used to the sun light, it's why I'm so pale." he said. 'Hey it's half true so I'm not lying to her, she just doesn't need to know WHY I work at night or what I do.' Ran told Ranma in his mind. 'besides it's not like we'll ever see her again after today. Demon Gods I've been around you to much Ranma I'm starting to think about others.' Ran could hear Ranma chuckling in the back of there head.

Hotaru smiled brightly at that. "OH okay."

Ran looked at her then hide his eyes. "WHOA turn down that smile or I'll go sun blind." he said with a joking grin, Hotaru giggled. Ran then spotted a store where they could use the phone and he could get a new shirt and a set of sunglasses. Upon seeing Ran enter without a shirt the Lady behind the desk called security and approached him, about to ask him to leave.

"I'm sorry sir but we have a no shirt, no shoes, no service policy in this store." She said with a bit of disappointment in her voice as soon as she got a good look at him. Apart from the unruly hair he was unbelievable good looking.

Ran lifted an eyebrow at all the pheromones this women was putting off the moment she got a look at him. 'She must REALLY want to get you in bed Ranma.' Ran said then he started having to hold back from laughing when he saw Ranma pass out in the back of there mind. Ran pulls himself back to the real world and stared at the women right in the eye. "Today you'll make an expception." He said as if it wasn't a request but rather an order, he then walked passed her with Hotaru on his heel, once the women saw a scared and hurt Hotaru wearing a shirt that was overly to big for her clinging to Ran's back as if he was protecting her from the world. She quickly ran back to the desk and told security to watch him but not stop him.

"Ranma-senpai what are we doing?" Hotaru asked as Ran started looking for a shirt to wear.

"Ah here's a good one." Ran said as he pulled on a Black dress shirt and did it up, "oh and Hotaru-chan just call me Ran. I'm looking for a new shirt to wear, you can keep that one, and look around your self, I'm sure you'll find something you like." Ran said while he started looking more.

"But I don't have any money. And I should get home." Hotaru said worriedly.

"Blah. Your right, we'll call your folks first then I'll buy you a new outfit to wear home, unless you want to go home in a torn up skirt and a shirt that's big enough to be wore like a dress?" Ran's joking grin had reappeared while Hotaru blushed a little.

Awhile later

Ran had just finished his 'dinner' he had gone back and cleaned up the thugs and was now roof hopping his was back to the Tendo's place for Ranma, who had yet to wake up from the mental images Ran had sent him in the store. Ran's meeting with Hotaru's 'Parents' had been different to say the least, Haruka had tried to accuses him of doing, something, to her daughter. What? He wasn't to sure, he lost being about to understand her after the first three second of her rant. Setsuna sat back, after making sure Hotaru was okay, and stared into Ran's red eyes with her own, Michiru just fretted over Hotaru making sure she was okay, and complementing the new outfit she was wearing. The outfit was one of Ran's choices, small thin black hoody jacket over a violet shirt and violet skirt that reach just above her knees and black leggings. He didn't know why but she didn't look right with out purple on, but that's beside the point.

Needless to say the lack of any males there bugged Ran for her development, after the rape gang attack and lesbians for parents, if she liked guys before she'll more then likely not anymore, or she'd end up fixated on him, and from the love struck look in her eyes when he started walking back to the gang he was betting on the latter. 'Dark Gods help me.' Ran through as he landed back in Nerima.

While Ran walked the streets of Nerima waiting for Ranma to wake up he noticed someone walking towards him that he wished he hadn't seen, Kasumi and she saw him. "Oh my, hello Ranma-kun where have you been all day? I was worried when you didn't get home in time for lunch." she asked when she got close enough to him.

She was in a dark blue dress minus the apron, and looked as if she was out on a date or something. Ran tried his best to act like Ranma "errr it's alright I'm not that hungry anyway, Akane's attempt at cook sorta made me lose my appetite."

"mine too." Kasumi muttered under her breath before quickly replacing her mask and smiling. She was about to say something when she saw Ran laughing. "Oh my Ranma-kun what's so funny?" She asked in confusion at how Ranma was reacting as if he heard her 'I know I didn't say that loud enough for him to hear.'

Had she been talking with Ranma he wouldn't have heard her or he would have ignored it, however Ran WASN'T Ranma and there for didn't limit his powers in normal life because to him, they were normal. "I knew that face was a mask. No one can really be that happy all the time and not be on some sort of meds." Ran said with a grin, at Kasumi's confused look he grinned wider "Yours too." Kasumi blushed at being caught, she had even had Nabiki fooled and Ranma of all people had found her out.

"Damn, I was sure that no one would catch on. How'd you know?" it was then that Kasumi noticed the differences in Ranma's clothing. "hey where'd you get that shirt and sunglasses? I don't remember you having them before."

Ran smirked and he straightened the cuffs of his shirt. "I bought them today, I like the feel of them. But for now I got to run so I'll talk to you later Kasumi" Ran then started to walk by her as he got beside her he stopped but didn't face her. "and it takes one with a mask to see another with a mask, you just have to know how to look." With that Ran jump to the roof of the nearest building and was gone.

When Ranma finally woke up he found himself looking down over all of Nerima from the water tower. "Huh! How'd I get here?" He asked not quite remembering anything that happened.

"Me." a voice said behind him. Turning around Ranma came face to 'face' with Ran's shadowy form again. "After you passed out I took care of the girl and made sure her folks got her back. Then I came back here, but I steered clear of the Dojo I can't be you anymore then you can be me."

Ranma nodded in understanding as he stood back up. "Gah! There's that disgusting full felling again." Ranma complained as he tried to get his footing back. "That's one of the reasons I hate it when you take over, I always end up having that full stomach and content feeling but knowing what you eat, Gah!"

Ran chuckled "You'd think after all this time you'd be use to it."

Ranma scowled at him. "I can never get use to what you eat, and I hope to every god out there that I never do. If it wasn't for the fact that you help me and protect innocent people I wouldn't even let you out."

Ran growled, "And you're lucky I even exist if it wasn't for me how many times would you be dead!"

Ranma was about to fire another shot at Ran when he stop. "This fight is getting old, we both need each other, and we know it. I just don't like the fact that you need to eat humans, being that you're a demon I understand it that doesn't mean I like it thought." Ran nodded, and looked towards were the Tendo dojo was. "What's the matter Ran?"

"There back, and Akane's pissed off again." Ran said without looking towards Ranma.

Ranma only sighed in response. "Time to play dumb again, you ready?" Ranma asked as he prepared to face the ones that called him family.

"I still don't see why we have to go back to them, you have no feelings towards any of them except for the eldest daughter, and you already told me that it's only as a sisterly kind of love." Ran said as he prepared to lock away most of Ranma's powers so that he didn't accidentally kill everyone in the house when he got angry.

"I'm still trying to teach Akane my side of Anything Goes. If she learns it then the schools are joined and we're free, then it's the others." Ranma said. While thinking of a way out the other engagements.

Ran stop his locking process and looked as thought full as he could being a walking shadow. "Maybe you're looking at this problem to small."

Ranma looked at him for a second beyond confused. "Huh, weren't you the one that said break a problem down to it's smallest parts then solve it so you don't end up overwhelmed?"

Ran nodded "Well yes, but bare with me for a minute. You turned 18 yesterday right?"

Ranma nodded disgustedly. "Ya and nobody even noticed. Well other then you, but then again it's sort of your birthday as well."

Ran just shrugged and continued " Whatever anyway technically speaking we could end all the engagements other then the Amazon one in one sweep." Ranma perked up at that and waited for Ran to continue "and the Amazons I think I can deal with after. But I've learned a lot from looking around, since we're 18 now we can take over the Saotome clan and school of martial arts through challenging the head of the clan. Once done kick Genma and Nodoka out and with them goes there dishonour."

At this point Ranma cut in. "Wait kick mom out too?"

Ran nodded. "Genma wasn't the only one making engagements, Nodoka did as well that's why she was said you should take the others as mistresses. She didn't care about you all that much Ranma, she only wants to make you her bearding stud like the Amazons do."

Ranma growled, had it been anyone other then Ran he would have called them a liar, but despite the fact that Ran was a Demon he still never lied to him, ever and had always watched over Ranma. "So tell me how to do this." Ran nodded and started to tell Ranma his plans for how to take over the Saotome Clan.

Jabberwocky- Jabberwocky means self opposite.


	2. Chapter 2

I don't own Ranma ½ or SM or any other anime for that matter… I only wish I did.

Shadow's of the heart

Chapter 2

Ending the old

Ranma walked towards the Tendo Dojo with a determined look in his eyes. 'Okay, this is all set. Ran you sure this will work?'

Ran was floating above the ground, behind Ranma broadly. "Yes Ranma this will work, as long as you let me do the talking for you. If we want this to work right you have to make it look like you're the one that is doing this. We can't let them catch on that it's me or else I know that they'll try to exorcise me."

Ranma frowned, as he walked calmly towards the Dojo which was still a ways away. 'Can they do that?'

Ran didn't really move as he fallowed Ranma. "Now normally I'd say no because this is what priests call a welcomed passion. In other words, you allowed me inside of you. That's half true; mind you I'm still not sure WHY I'm connected to you at all. Anyways the thing is I'm not sure what the Amazons have to use on my kind."

Ranma looked over at him, and then looked back forward. 'You sure don't look too concerned for someone that could die if this screws up.'

Ran just shrugged, which was lost on Ranma since he wasn't looking at him. "Well, we'll just have to make sure we don't mess this up now don't we." They were only a block away when that saw there first target. "Look, there's Happosai now" Ran said while pointing to a roof top.

There, bounding along with a sack full of stolen goods was Happosai yelling his normal line. "What a haul! What a haul!" Ranma growled wanting to pound the little pervert.

"Temper temper, Ranma. We need him here to hear you." Ran said while the jumped up behind Happosai, stealing his bag and throwing it to the gang of women on the street behind them.

"Huh, Wha? Ranma how dare you mistreat your master like this." Happosai yelled in rage, before switching to his forgiving act. "But I'll forgive you if you wear this bra and let me rest in your bosom" he finished waving a lace black bra in his face.

Ranma had to drop into the soul of ice to keep from punting the old freak in to Leo. "Grandmaster Happosai of the Anything Goes martial arts, I Ranma Saotome challenge you for the title of Grandmaster of your school." Ran nodded that Ranma was acting perfectly to their plan. "If you accept, it'll be a two on me fight. Should you win I'll be you're slave for a week, in my girl form. When I win you'll give me the title and your school."

Happosai was about to refuse the fight until he hear Ranma would be his slave and do anything he wanted for a week. "I accept. I can't wait to have you in this bra and panty set I just was given (read stole)." he said sliding into an attack stance.

However Ranma simply turned his back on him. "The fight will be in one week in the high school sports field. This is an official match Grandmaster Happosai, not a street brawl." With that said Ranma hopped away to the Tendo Dojo, his mind steaming the whole time. 'I could have taken him right there.'

Ran Grinned and stopped the movement, looking back while he talked. "Yes we could have but then you wouldn't have been able to pull off the plan nor had the fun of watching this." Ranma suddenly look at what Ran was watching. Happosai was so baffled by Ranma's behavior that he jumped off the roof with out thinking and slowly started down the street smoking his pipe. What Ran was laughing about was that he hadn't been watching where he jumped and had landed right in the middle of the swarm of anger women he had been running away from. Both Ran and Ranma fell over laughing as the crowd left leaving a flattened perverted master in their wake.

After catching his breath Ranma once again started towards the Tendo Dojo in a much better mood. 'Okay, seeing that did help my temper, you were right Ran.'

His shadowy follower nodded looking at the now rising moon. "No worries Ranma just remember I'm the one who has to talk our way through this next part. We can't let Nabiki mess you up in this next part otherwise the whole plan is shot, and lord knows that she'll try, so let me talk. Deal?"

Ranma didn't even move his face as he continued his way to the Dojo, which was only few feet away now. 'Deal!' Ranma walked in to the home without so much as a look at Akane, who was yelling at him about something. Seeing Kasumi he smiled and said a quick "Hello" before continuing on into the dinner room. As soon as he was in the room he saw Nabiki there with one of her all knowing smirks. 'Can't wait for you to meet Ran, Nabiki. You're going to be in the surprise of your life.' Ranma thought as he suppressed a smirk of his own. "Everyone please come here I have an announcement to make."

Genma and Soun, being the idiots that they were, instantly thought that he was going to announce that he was going to marry Akane and started to dance with joy and sing. Kasumi had a bad feeling and almost stopped smiling; Almost. Nodoka kept on smiling blissfully. Akane was yelling at the fathers that she wasn't going to marry a perverted jerk, and the smirk never left Nabiki's face. "Idiots, all of them. It's time Ranma."

Ranma nodded 'Just don't hurt Kasumi.' was that last thing Ranma thought before he slipped to the back of the mind. Outside the mind, Ranma's head dropped as the dragon whisker suddenly came unbound from his pigtail, and his hair fell loose. The moon raised behind him as he whispered "Quiet, all of you." By some miracle everyone heard him and fell silent. Raising his head again, Ran's red eyes showed and everyone gasped. Realizing that he was going to make everyone realize he wasn't Ranma he released Ranma's battle aura, burning Bright red. "You all SHUT UP RIGHT NOW!"

Genma, being the idiot that he was, yelled back at him "Boy, respect your betters!"

Ran saw this as an opportunity to make everyone think is was still Ranma talking "Show me someone better then me and I'll respect the, pops." had anyone been catching on before the ego made them lose there doubts. All except for Kasumi, she could now see that this was the boy from the market not the Ranma she was getting to know at home.

Genma, not liking being insulted, jump kicked at Ran in hopes of catching him off guard. Ran however wasn't in the mood and simply caught him in the air by his extended foot, a quick twist later Genma on the ground with a twisted ankle. "You're lucky I need you intact old man." Soun switched into Demon head mode and went after Ran, 'Heh heh, this should be fun.' Ranma said as Ran stared at the head.

"BOY RESPECT YOU FATHER!" Soun's demon head yelled, by now everyone was feeling the effects of the fear aura, everyone, that is, but Ran as he could see right through it.

Ran started at him unaffected "And why should I do something as stupid as that?" Ran the started to shot an angered glare at Soun, his red eyes pulsing with his heart beat. Ranma's battle aura lashed out like red whips of flames looking for something to burn. Slowly he advanced on the wilting demon head raising a now clawed hand towards the idiot Tendo father. Pushing the older man against a wall, Ran leaned in and whispered into his ear with a hiss. "You're lucky that you have Kasumi otherwise I'd kill you were you stand old man." Dropping Soun to the floor Ran returned to his seat. Looking around he could see all eyes were on him.

"Good now that I have everyone's attention, I'll say what I have to say and be done with it." Standing up he looked down at Genma who was still nursing his ankle. "Genma Saotome, master of the Saotome School of Anything goes martial arts and head of the Saotome Clan. I, Ranma Saotome, Challenge you for leadership of your school and the Saotome clan. This is an Official two on me match that well take place in one week at the High school sports field. If you win I'll bow down and marry Akane after the match. When I win you hand over the rights of your school and your clan to me. There will be an impartial judge for the match."

Genma was, like Happosai, about to refuse the match, when Soun tapped him on the shoulder reminding him of what Ranma said he'd do if they won. Before Genma could nod however Nabiki decided to throw her two cents in, while clapping. "Inspiring show, Saotome however you forgot something." Ran Raised an eyebrow. "I like the idea; really, however you forget that you need to be at least 18 to take over a clan."

Nodoka nodded "I think it's very manly that you want to help with clan business, however you mustn't get ahead of yourself son."

Ran had to fight to keep his controlled mask when he felt Ranma's disgust for those around him, then he saw Kasumi going wide eyed as if remembering something. Sending a few mental images at Ranma to shut him up. Ran nodded at Kasumi. "I turned 18 yesterday, not that any of you cared." Ran said the last part looked pointedly at his mother, who gasped that she'd forget.

Genma started feeling a little fear, about losing this match. "Who well be against you other then me?" he asked remembering that Ranma had sweetened the deal with it being a two on him match.

Ran nodded understanding that this would finish this deal. "Grandmaster Happosai will be on your side. He has put up the title of Grandmaster for this match. Now do we have a deal?"

Genma went wide eyed 'The boy has lost his mind, unless… no if that had happened he would've attacked already.' "I accept. Prepare to marry Akane boy." Genma said as he held out his hand to Ran.

Ran took the hand, eyes still glowing with an unseen light, "Only if you win you stupid old fool."

Nodoka stood up and sent a hard stare at Ran. "Son, it very unmanly of you to disrespect your father in such a way." she started to finger her Katana while she said this.

Ran didn't even look at her while he started toward the stairs. "Like I care what you think you senile old women." With that he disappeared up the stairs. Everyone was so shocked at his treatment of his own mother they didn't move.

Kasumi regained her wits first with her patented "Oh my! That was fairly rude of Ranma. I wonder what's wrong with him. Maybe he needs some tea." Everyone face faulted just as Ran hit the bottom step. See that everyone was in no shape to move, let alone chase him. He blew Kasumi as kiss and raced out the door, his backpack over his shoulder. Kasumi blush a little from the kiss with a little 'Oh my' once again. She left the room to make that tea, only this time is was more for her then him.

In the skies above Nerima

Ran's shadowy wings flapped lightly, sticking out from under Ranma's backpack. Looking down on the town underneath him he sighed. "You know it's kind of ironic if you think about it. Whenever we're out in the country you'd think flying would be easy to get away with but in the morning I always hear rumors that someone saw us. Now that we're living in the city, I've flown out every month and I have yet to hear that ANYONE has seen us."

Ranma thought about it, he had yet to hear anyone either. "But you know, Nerima is always under SOME sort of weirdness. They all probable think your just one of those things." he replied as he continued to think over there plan. "So where are we heading now? Back downtown so you can eat some more?"

Ran could feel the disgust in Ranma voice when he asked that but let it slide. "No, I've eaten enough for today. Tonight we're heading to a temple that we visited on our training trip, assuming I can remember where it is."

Ranma sighed in relief that Ran wasn't going to be eating anyone tonight, then quickly switched over to the next topic. "Which temple? We've been to a lot you know."

Ran grinned "One of the few temples Genma **couldn't** steal anything from. The temple where the Monk study 'Storm Gods Fist Martial Arts'."

Ranma suddenly had a grin that matched Ran's. "Of course, I see where you're going. It was about 50 miles west of Mount Fuji if I remember right."

Juuban

Hotaru sat in her room staring off into space, hugging a pillow with a silly grin on her face. 'I've finally found my knight in shining armor.' she thought as she remember back to how Ran had saved her from the thugs, though she thought it was Ranma. Her smile dropped to a frown when she realized something 'But what about when he learns about my powers? Will he still like me? Or will he think I'm a freak as well?' an image or Ranma having a disgusted look on his face as he turned away from her appeared in Hotaru's mind as she suddenly wanted to cry.

Little by little Hotaru broke down in to tears as images of Ran turning his back on her ran through her minds. Just as she was about to cry herself to sleep, Michiru knocked on the door and entered the room. "Hotaru, honey I came to tuck you… Hotaru-chan what's wrong?"

"It's nothing , I'm fine." Hotaru managed out between sobs as she rolled to her side facing away from Michiru.

Not buying it for a second Michiru walked over and sat down on the edge of Hotaru's bed and placed a hand on her shoulder. Rolling the younger girl over to face her Michiru tried again "If nothing's wrong then why are you crying?"

Knowing that it was inescapable, Hotaru lunged into Michiru's arm and started to sob, the only understandable word being said were "It's not fair." and "I don't want him to go." After about half an hour Hotaru clamed down enough for Michiru to get her to talk.

"Okay, now that that's out of your system, want to talk?" Michiru asked smiling at the younger girl.

Hotaru sniffled a little before nodding. "Well it's just that, after Ran saved me he was so nice and kind to me, making me laugh and getting me new cloths. He was so strong heroic and brave, yet sweet and gentle. He didn't even seem to care why those guys attacked Me." She started to choke up again at this point. "What's he going to say when he finds out about my powers? Is he going to turn on me like everyone else? Oh, Michiru-mama I don't want him to hate me!" Hotaru broke down crying again at this point. Michiru sighed as she held the crying girl once again before looking up at the door. There she saw Setsuna closing said door quietly.

Setsuna herself was not having a good day. The senshi of Pluto had gone to the time gate right after getting Hotaru home and tried looking for this 'Ranma'. She could only find, however, things up until six months ago. He seemed to be completely MADE out of chaos, everything he touched became invisible to the gates of time for sometime, how long she wasn't aware. 'Shit, and I was just about to relax too. That and Hotaru seems to be attached to the boy.' With a sigh she teleported back to the time gates feeling another headache coming on looking back to see if she could at least find away to make the patches in his life become clearer.

"Why the hell can't I see those days? Every month there's three days I can't see." Setsuna growled in frustration, feeling the almost overwhelming urge to scream "RANMA NO BAKA!"

Ran sneezed and felt another cold chill run down his spine as he flew over Mount Fuji. "Hey you're not getting sick on me are you?" Ranma asked in the back of their head.

Ran blinked and blinked again before replying 'Please tell me you're joking Ranma?'

Ranma growled. "No I'm serious. We have a big fight coming up I'm going need you in top shape. If you're sick we'll have to be looked at by a doctor."

Ranma would have continued but Ran decided to cut him off there. 'Okay, for one, relax. I'm not getting sick, I'm not even sure I can get sick Ranma. I mean have you EVER seen me sick?' Ranma didn't reply as he really couldn't remember a time when Ran had been sick, not even when he himself had been. 'And two, who would look at me? I don't know about you but I've never even heard tell of a demon doctor. Most want my kind dead not healed.' Ranma nodded as he could understand that. 'And besides, we'll be there in about 20 minutes anyways. I can rest then.' It was just about midnight now and both could really use some sleep. It was going to be a long walk back and they still had to talk a master of the art into being the judge.

"Hey, you _sure_ that they'll judge this for us? I mean Pops DID try to steal from them." Ranma asked moving on to the next topic.

'No, I'm not sure Ranma, but we did give them warning. They were one of the only ones that stopped him. What made me respect them more was it was the white belts that were kicking him around.' Both Ran and Ranma laughed at the memory of Genma getting the stuffing kicked out of him by two white belts. 'It's just too bad we only mastered a few of their techniques.'

Ranma nodded, which lost it's effect since he wasn't visible, "Yeah, I know what you mean but the ki techniques we did learn helped a lot, plus you learned more then I did." he grumbled the last part.

'Technically speaking I didn't.' Ran replied causing Ranma to become quiet rather quickly. 'See none of the moves I do use ki. They use my energies which, while similar to ki but more versatile, and more like magic then ki. Think of it like demon magic. My moves are therefore simply magic and ki mixes and not the real techniques and can be a lot more dangerous. Thisis why I had you seal the ones you learned form here.' Ran explained.

Ranma smiled at that, he hadn't been out done after all. "It's good to know that you're not perfect after all."

Ran raised an eyebrow, as he searched for the temple. 'You do realize that we are two halves to the same whole, right? If I'm not perfect that means you're not perfect."

Ranma grinned as he replied "Yeah, I know that, but I always felt kind of put off that you would pick up on things faster then I would. Like starting to replace my confidence attack with pure ki to make it stronger, or how to drain ki out of the air to recharge while in a fight." before Ran could reply Ranma quickly adjusted their eyesight off to the left. "There's the temple. Lets get this over with, I need a nap."

Ran nodded while starting to bring them down to ground level to walk the rest of the way. He didn't need them knowing what he was. They may know already but there wasn't any need to scare them.

45 minutes later.

Ranma was once again in control of his body while Ran remained in his head, not daring to step out on to holy ground. Before them stood the Grandmaster of the Storm Gods Fist School of martial arts, and three of its masters. Bowing low he started to say, word for word, what Ran told him to. "I come here today to request judges for a contest of honor. I, Ranma Saotome, humbly ask for two masters of you're art to judge as I have challenged the Grandmaster of my art for his title, as well as leadership of my clan."

The grandmaster looked questionably at the boy before them. 'I sense a great tint inside this boy's aura; I must know what is causing it. He also looks very familiar, hmmm.' "Why come to us to judge this contest? Do you not have someone else that could judge it easily?"

As per Ran's instruction Ranma didn't left his head, although he wanted to jump up and start yelling at him, employing the Soul of ice to quell his pride Ranma continued. "I come to you for this because I know that you're is one of the few schools that can truly back up your judgment of this contest as well as be impartial of the judging. Although, you may have reason to want to judge it as well." 'hook.'

The Grandmaster looked at Ranma with more interest. "And why would we want to judge this contest?"

Inside Ranma Ran grinned 'line,' "Because I study Anything Goes Martial Arts, the Grandmaster of which is Happosai, and the leader for my clan is Genma Saotome. Both are known thieves and disgraces to the Art. I know that you hold a grudge against my father for trying to steal your scrolls, and Happosai for his theft of you treasures." The look on the Grandmasters face told Ran all he needed to know, 'and sinker.'

Disgust was written all over the four men's faces "You make a good deal young Ranma. We well agree to judge you contest, on two stipulations." Ranma sat up and nodded, wanting to hear what they do to get this deal done. "One you must find the scepter of clouds, the treasure Happosai stole from us." Ranma nodded, shouldn't be too hard to do. "And the second is you must tell me why your aura has the tint of a demon in it." Ran winced.

'I should have known that this would happen.' Ran thought bitterly "Would you believe that it's cause of all the demons I fight?" Ranma asked hopping they wouldn't see he was lying, while he was laughing like an idiot. Ran rolled his eyes while starting to take control of Ranma once again 'It's going to be a long day.'

That Saturday, Ran stood out on the sports field awaiting his 'guests' he did not look pleased, in one hand he held the Scepter of Clouds, in the other he held a mirror of stained black glassed. He tapped his foot angrily as he looked around; only the masters of the Storm Gods Fist and his opponents hadn't shown up yet. While's Ran's red eyes searched the growing crowd Ranma stayed inside his head conversing with his other self. "You sure the masters will show up Ran? They didn't seem too pleased that they agreed to deal with a demon."

Ran winced at the memory of having to talk his way out of that fight. They had even threaten to exercise him from Ranma, had Ranma not jump to the surface and take up a fighting stance, threatening to beat the tar out of the first one to come near him. After a long 5 hours of talking, threatening, yelling & beatings they all agreed that Ran could stay in Ranma as both seem to agree with each other and Ran didn't seem to have evil intent. (having a demon kick you around for half an hour then sit down and ask "Now that that's out of your system can we talk now?" well do that to you) 'They said they'd be here. All we have to do is wait Ranma. Now question, why am I the one standing out here not you?' Ran replied as he continued to watch the crowd.

"Because I'm too nervous. You are holding two items of insanely powerful magic like its nothing, but we know my luck with magic." Ranma replied before he spotted the objects of their desire, both sets. "Here they come, Ran."

Ran looked up and saw the two sets of people approaching them from opposite ends of the street, neither side looked all too happy. Nodding to himself, Ran tucked the mirror into his sleeve and hopped over the crowd to the judges. As soon as he landed Ran bowed his head and held out there treasure, "As you have asked I have delivered."

Nodding once, the grandmaster took the scepter and started for the arena "Then as per our deal we will judge this match."

Ran nodded again, he then reached up and started to tie his pigtail, as it was being bound. His eyes changed from blood red to a grey-blue, his finger nails returned to normal as did his once fanged teeth. As soon as he was finished he was once again Ranma. Blinking away the haze of switching between personalities, Ranma hopped back into the arena and glared at his opponents, who returned the glare full force.

Genma looked at his, in his opinion, useless dishonorable son and sneered "I'm not going to hold back on you boy, this is for your own good." he then spared a quick glance to Soun who was on the side lines.

Happosai just smirked and said "I hope you like wearing the panties I got for you Ranma." but he lost his smirk when Ranma didn't out right snap at him or even seem to react to the barb. 'He's serious about this, this could be bad.'

Ranma simply nodded to them before responding with word that haunted everyone there, both for what was said and how it was said. "I'm going to stop holding back for this fight as well." his voice colder then the soul of ice could have hoped to produce.

Then the grandmaster and masters stepped forward. It was the three of the four that happened to have questioned Ranma at the temple. The grandmaster spoke up. "I am Fu Lee, Grandmaster of the Storm Gods Fist School of martial arts. I and two of the master along side me while Judge this match as an impartial party. The rules are as so; this match is Happosai and Genma on Ranma, no outside interference is allowed. Whoever the interference is for will be disqualified. Their will be no killing. Anything else is allowed."

Ranma almost smirked when Genma started to sweat when he heard just WHO was judging the match. Happosai also seemed edgy until he heard that they couldn't interfere without disqualifying Ranma. Then they heard the call. "READY! BEGIN!"

Happosai started things off with a bang, "Happo Fire Burst!" throwing out several bombs, while Genma slipped into the Umi-sen-ken. Ranma smirked as he almost lazily swung his arm, which was glowing blue with chi, sidewise at the bombs coming towards him. As he finished the swing a strong gust of redirected the bombs to different areas around the arena, causing a great amount of dust to be kicked up.

Inside the dust cloud Ranma and Ran were talking as they themselves dropped into the Umi-sen-ken. "You want ME to start this fight off? Why" Ran asked in his mind.

'It's simple Ran. You can take out Happosai while easily smelling, and hearing where Genma is hiding, and then I'll take back over and kick the heck out of pops.' Ranma responded while he hid and continued to kick up more dust with small bursts of chi, providing cover for there talk.

"Fine but I'm not going to make a show of it. He's going down hard and brutally for all the girls he molested." Ran said while he started to take over the body and pumped up their battle aura, which changed from bright blue to black. As it continued to build, and make the bombs Happosai was throwing explode harmlessly before coming close to him, Ranma's body changed again. His eyes glowed red while his hair fell loose again before taking on a few silver streaks. He grew fangs and claw like finger nails. Once done Ran growled at Happosai and spoke in an angry and deep voice "Normally I would hold back a lot on any normal fighter, but you Happosai have pissed me off with all the women you've molested. I'm going to enjoy this." Black lightning formed for his aura and converged on Ran's fist as he called out his attack, "DEMON STORM FIST" and he was off like a shot.

Hotaru gasped at what she saw, she had fallowed a rumor she had heard at school. Someone had been talking about how Nerima's best fighter Ranma Saotome was going to fight for the title of his School against the legendary panty thief and his father. Linking the name Ranma to the man that had saved her, she hopped a bus over to see if it was him. She had arrived right after the fight started. At first she didn't think it was him because the hair style and eyes were wrong, and his voice sounded off. 'I came all the way here… might as well watch the fight, I guess…' her heart stop however when an aura pushed the dust away and she saw Ran standing there for all the world to see, as soon as he spoke she knew it was the same man, 'Why was he so different before?' she watched entranced as she heard him speak for the first time since the day he saved her.

"Normally I would hold back a lot on any normal fighter, but you Happosai have pissed me off with all the Women you've molested. I'm going to enjoy this." Black lightning formed around Ran's fist as he called out his attack, "DEMON STORM FIST" then he disappeared for where he was standing, and the little gnome started to jerk around as if being hit by an unseen attacked.

"Whoa." Hotaru whisper in awe, while everyone around her nodded in equal shock.

Back in the fight.

Ran grinned evilly as he pounded on Happosai, he was really proud of this attack. Both he and Ranma had come up with a few new attacks hoping it would help control the jumps in power they were getting. This was an adapted version of the Chest Nut Fist, he not only use his Ki to speed himself up but he also would use his demon aura to create black lightning surrounding his fist, adding more bang for his buck. The really cool part was that using the same principle of Hidden Weapon he managed to find a way to get things OUT of other peoples subspace pockets and store whatever he took in one of his subspace pocket. 'Whoa' Ran thought as he finished the attack and jumped back 'That old pervert had A LOT of bombs in subspace.'

Ranma nodded inside Ran's mind as he watched out for his Father. "No kidding, and what was all that other junk?" Ranma asked before he cut Ran off with a "Dodge Left NOW!"

On instinct, Ran fallowed Ranma's advice and dodged left just as a vacuum blade sliced where he had been standing. Ran scowled 'So he finally figured out how to use the demon god assault bomb in the Umi-sen-ken. Things just got more interesting.' Ignoring his host's father Ran once again attacked Happosai. This time there were cheers for him, well Ranma anyway, from all the women in the crowd.

Happosai had just enough time to blink after Ran dodged a vacuum blade from his 'partner' before he, himself was dodging and blocking for all he was worth. 'When did Ranma become so fast and strong?' Happosai thought as he dodged a swipe kick only to get hit in the face with a elbow as Ran finished the spin. Happosai, although old and perverted, was no fool. He knew today he would lose his title but he'd be damned if he was going to give it up without a fight, drawing his pipe he begin to counter attack at the same moment that Genma attacked with more vacuum blades.

While throwing the blades, Genma himself was shocked that Ranma, his disrespectful useless son, was pushing the Master to his limits. 'If I didn't know any better I'd swear that his demon half had awakened, but that can't be, if it had he would have attacked already. But then how did he get so powerful?' Shaking himself from he thoughts Genma powered up, releasing the Umi-sen-ken and prepared for one of his most powerful, and dangers attacks.

Ran was dodging skillfully and countering what he could when he suddenly saw Genma and the stance he had taken which caused him to curse. "SHIT! I should have taken that fool out first." quickly redirecting the energies he was going to use to blast Happosai with into his hand Ran jumped high into the air and yelled his attack while aiming his fist for the ground. "DEMON RISING!" his fist hit the ground with a tremendous rumble. Black lightning arced from his fist and into the ground forcing Happosai to jump back.

Happosai sighed as he got a little breather. He was sweating profusely. When he looked up thinking he'd see Ranma sweating as well he was in shock, not only was Ranma not sweating he wasn't even looking at him. Fallowing Ranma's line of sight he noticed that he was looking intently at Genma who was in an unusual stance, with a huge amount of energy surrounding him. Then it clicked, 'That attack wasn't meant to let Ranma get a breather, it was meant to stop Genma, but ho..' his thoughts were cut off when Ranma stood up and Genma started calling out his attack.

"RANMA, BEHOLD THE ULTIMATE ATTACK OF THE SAOTOME SCHOOL!" Ran just gave Genma a cold stare and raised his hand to snap his fingers. "DEMON GOD BIG MAD DAN…" Genma was cut off when Ran snapped his fingers and black flames exploded from the ground all around the Saotome elder both stopping that attack by draining his energy and burning him.

Ran nodded before reaching behind his head, 'I've done enough for now it's your turn Ranma.' quickly returning his black and silver hair to a pigtail Ran reverted back into Ranma, his aura turning blue, with his eyes, the fangs disappearing as well as the claws, and his hair losing it's silver. A large smirk appeared on his face as he looked at Happosai's staggering form. "Time for your nap old man." Before Happosai could reply, Ranma was on him with a whole new set of attacks, and some really wicked chi blasts. The only thing heard before the explosions started was Ranma's voice yelling "TIGER CLAW BARRAGE!"

After the attack finished Happosai staggered backward, his pipe nothing more then a lip piece. He was beaten, bruised and broken. The only reason he was still standing at all was shear will. He looked up at Ranma who was still grinning and looked as if he had just walked into that ring instead of having beaten the Grandmaster of the art, looking to his left he saw Genma returning to his feet. 'The fool should have stayed down.' were the last thoughts that cross Happosai's mind before darkness clamed him.

Ranma watched as Happosai fell to the ground. 'One down, one left.' Turning to where his father had fallen earlier, Ranma saw only and empty space. Ranma frowned while he quickly scanned that arena. 'Figures that the cowered would slip back into the Umi-sen-ken as soon as he got back up' Ranma suddenly jumped left to avoid another vacuum blade. He quickly spun around and launched a chi blast at the blade causing both to explode before reaching that crowd that was still trying to escape.

Looking at how the blade was cutting the ground Ranma knew that Genma had launched it from the ground instead of the air like the others. 'That means I know how to get him out in the open' a wicked grin formed on Ranma's face as he started powering for his attack. Bouncing off of a near by tree Ranma got himself a good ways above the ground before starting to descend much like Ran had, only glowing blue as he did. Ranma called out his attack just before he touched ground "EARTH SPIRIT STRIKE!"

Genma was at a lose, as soon as the boy touched ground an earth quake started. Losing balance Genma fell out of the Umi-sen-ken and landed just where a fissure was opening in the ground. Quickly jumping into the air to avoid being swallowed by the ground, Genma looked to where the boy had been only to be kicking in the head of his trouble, as Ranma fallowed up his assault. Genma hit the ground with a meaty 'Thwack' but at least the earth quake had stopped.

Ranma landed with a smirk once more, one more hit and this chapter of this life would end. His smirk turned into a nasty grin when Genma once staggered to his feet. Ranma started to run towards him with a ball of chi in his hand. As soon as he was within arms reach, Ranma lashed out with an open palm strike with the hand that happened to be holding the chi blast. With a yell of "TIGER FIST!" the chi exploded and sent Genma into a wall as well as unconscious. Ranma stood up and looked at his two opponents; both were out cold and didn't look like they were getting up anytime soon. "I win" he said almost like he didn't care.

All three of the judges nodded in agreement. "Ranma Saotome is the winner, as per the terms of the match, he now is both Grandmaster of anything goes martial arts and head of the Saotome Clan."

Ranma started towards Nodoka as she kneeled before him, the Saotome blade held above her head. Taking the blade Ranma, like at the temple, instilled the soul of ice and repeated exactly as Ran told him to. "As head of the Saotome Clan I here by banish both Saotome Genma and Saotome Nodoka from MY clan. With them goes any and all deals and dishonor they have created. All engagements made by them are here by null and void. I will not accept killers and thieves in my clan." He then turned to the Tendo's as one of the judges handed him the Scroll that named him Grandmaster of Anything goes martial arts. "Next, as the Grandmaster of Anything goes I here by forbid Akane from ever practicing my school again, as she only uses it to bully others. WHICH IS NOT WHAT A MARTIAL ARTIST DOES!" he yell the last part right at Akane, using a little of Ran's fear aura to cause her to 'eep' and hide behind Soun who was also to scared to move or cry.

Cologne was almost jumping for joy inside; Shampoo was the only one with a real claim on Ranma now. Her and Shampoo started towards him with the idea to clam there prize until he turn to them with blood red glowing eyes and his hair falling free. "And as for you two, come near me again and I'll send you flying back to China one way."

Cologne grinned wickedly "Son-in-law that's no way to be talking to your family!"

Ran grinned coldly at her "We're not family and you're not in a very good position to argue with me. One; you an illegal immigrant into Japan. Two; I can have you charged with attempted murder. Three; you have no REAL claim on me as I've looked into it, China doesn't excepts your laws nor does Japan. I refuse to go with you, so you lose old women." Ran's grin grow as he saw her about to jump him "Oh and incase you get the idea of jumping me, look at the field and then check my ki and chi levels against when I started this fight."

Colognes eyes widened before grabbing her granddaughter and running off. Ran just grinned again, carrying the sword over his shoulder he walked off. The crowd parting for him as he left, as he walked away he was so caught up in his discussion with Ranma he didn't notice a shadow fallowing him.

Dipping into an ally he picked up his back pack and headed for the hills outside of Nerima. 'So what do you think we should do first Ranma?'

Before Ranma could answer they were suddenly glomped from behind, and heard a voice both thought they'd never hear again. "I've finally found you Ran-senpai"

Ran and Ranma froze wide eyed "Hotaru-chan?"

"Uh huh." The smaller girl said while trying to cuddle into Ran's back.

'THIS is going to be interesting.' Both Ran and Ranma thought while the looked at the younger girl who was now glomped onto the front of them.

To Be Continued…

Omake:

Shadow sat back in his desk sipping his coffee. Yesterday had been his birthday, and for once nothing had exploded, tried to run him over, attacked him or anything. So he was in a pretty good mood. "Heh heh, I even got done another chapter of one of my Fanfic."

Just then Alex walked into his room with Hiryo. "Hey Shadow what's up?" Alex asked as he took as seat near by.

Looked up Shadow half smirked, in a very Ranma sort of way. "Nothing. Just plotting over my evil plans."

Both of his fellow authors blinked at the same time and looked at Shadow. Alex recovered his wits first. "OOOOKAY then."

Shadow chuckled and waved it off. "Just thinking about how this story is going to be paired. I think you and some others would get a kick out of…"

Shadow was cut off when the door exploded off it's hinges and an anger Ranma stormed into the room holding what looked to be a script "NO FUCKING WAY!"

Alex and Hiryo looked at each other before looking back at the steamed Ranma and clam Shadow.

"What is it now Ranma?"

"I'm NOT Doing this!"

"And why would that be?" Shadow asked as calmly as ever.

"Do you know many girls are after me in this?"

"Yes I wrote it, of course I know. Besides you're not going to end up with all of them only the ones that were special requests." Shadow countered while sipping his coffee.

Ranma was just about to say something back when a shout of "RAANNNMMMAAA!" was heard by all. Ranma's eyes widened and he got a pleading look on his face. Shadow rolled his eyes and opened a portal off world for Ranma to jump in; as he did 150 girls rounded the corner and fallowed him into the portal.

Alex developed a sweat drop as he stared at the now closed portal. "That was different."

Shadow shrugged. "So what'cha here for?"

Alex shrugged. "Hiding form the Wives." Hiryo nodded while Shadow developed a sweat drop of his own thinking 'Then how was that different then what they are doing?'


	3. Chapter 3

-1Shadow's of the heart

Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction that I made up, I don't own any Anime or Game characters in it, I do own a computer and a block of cheese that's about it. So if you sue you'll get the block of cheese, cause it's worth more then the computer I'm typing this on, sad ah. Anyways on with the fic.

Chapter 3.

The new path.

"Hotaru could you let me go please?" Ran asked as his mind started working again, and he convinced Ranma to settle down.

Hotaru's eyes shot wide open once she realized what she was doing. Jumping back several feet she started to apologies repeatedly, while blushing deep red. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I didn't realise what I was doing. I'm really really sorry."

Ranma started laughing at the irony of what was happening, Ran just smiled at her. "Relax no harm done, though you did surprise me. Who knew you could be so forward when you wanted to." Ran started laughing when her blush increased to the point were even her fingers turned red.

Back in Nerima after the fight.

The NWC was in ruins after Ranma's decision, the fiancée's were frantic yelling and screaming about Ranma not choosing them. Well Akane was yelling about Ranma running of with some 'hussy', but nobody really cared about her.

Soun was in tears, no surprise there, wailing that the school would never be joined over his unconscious partner in crime, Genma. Nabiki watched wearing a mask of indifference however on the inside she was sheathing, 'how could this happen, Ranma the dumb jock holding out on me? Hiding secrets from me? He got his name and freedom in one sweep, he got a judge that both Happosai and Genma were afraid of, and the cops are here to make this legal? I have to get him back under my thumb.'

Cologne was thinking about the fight as well but she was more afraid of something else. 'That wasn't Ranma. His speech was off, and those eyes, that was a demon if I ever saw one. A cleaver one as well, the way he said those things he was putting on a show for the crowd knowing that it would make the others think I was scared of being deported. I must look into this, son-in-law has been possessed.'

Kasumi was trying to comfort a distort Nodoka, and clam down Akane as best she could but like everyone else with some thought power, she too was running the fight she had just seen through her mind. 'He was so different' she thought as she remember how Ranma had looked when he started the fight to how he looked when he first attack. She knew she wasn't the only one who saw it, but from how everyone was reacting she was betting that Ranma was hoping that no one would start to think about how he looked until the shock of his actions after the fight wore off. 'He'd win that bet too.' Kasumi said to herself as she watched everyone yelling and screaming, everyone that is except for one person she noticed.

"So you finally found a way out, ah. Good." The smirking fanged man said to himself as he watched riot in the making. "fah, idiots all of them." he said to himself as he leaned back into the tree he was against.

"Now now master they all can't be like you and Ranma-sama." said the tall and beautiful women that stepped out from behind the tree he was leaning against. The women was just under 6 foot, with long green hair reaching her middle back. She wore a tight green business suit that made her already high sexy appeal shoot through the roof, had the guys in the not been in shock they would have passed out form nose bleeds. Had the man himself not been around her for so long his would have himself. "Should we not be following Ranma-sama Master?"

The fanged man only rolled his eyes. "No, not yet, I want to make sure nobody here follows him first. And for the last time Please call me Ryoga. Master makes me feel like I enslaved to Cylia."

Cylia smirked. "But master I'm your love slave." she purred as she rubbed up against Ryoga, making the fanged boy quite nerves. "You know I'm a Succubes, Ryoga-sama. And you defeated me, their for I'm yours."

Ryoga sighed. "Ya, Ya I know. This is all Ranma's fault." Cylia kissed him passionately on the lips causing Ryoga to get a stupid grin on his face. 'not that I'm complaining' Shaking him out of those thoughts Ryoga focused on the crowd. "Not right now Cylia, I need to stay focused on this mess then get this clock to Ranma, they'll be able to deal with it if what you read was true."

Cylia sighed "Mission first, I know." She then looked out over the crowd, 'besides I own Ranma-sama to much to play around when he needs us.' Cylia unwittingly echoed Ryoga's thoughts as the both kept there eyes on the mod of Nerimiens.

Ryoga nodded as he watched the crowd thinking back to how Ranma had proven himself to Ryoga shortly before the battle with Saffron. Ranma's words echoing Ryoga's mind, "You haven't seen hell Ryoga, not like I have. There's something that I never told anyone about and I didn't use in the Lion roar shot. You want to see hell? Come I'll show you my demon, we'll go to hell together!" Ryoga snorted 'He showed me hell alright. And I've never been happier because of it.'

Because of his mind drifting as it did Ryoga didn't notice Kasumi until she was right in front of him. Kasumi issued a polite "umm excuse me Ryoga-kun?" Ryoga screamed as he fell backwards from surprise, Cylia pulled a blade from nowhere and quickly pointed it at Kasumi's neck, ready to remove her head at the slightest movement causing Kasumi you gasp.

Ryoga quickly pulled himself together "Cylia Stop!" The demon women did so, as Ryoga raised and pushed the blade aside "I was drifting asleep and she surprised me that's all. I think after this we need a vacation, we're getting paranoid." Cylia put the blade away before blinking in surprise.

"Really!" The woman asked in delight, Ryoga nodded "Can we go to Hawaii I've always wanted to see the volcano's"

Ryoga shrugged "I don't see why not, they can't be have as dangers as that last mission. If the boss doesn't have anything for us, I'll ask him about it." Cylia was glomping onto Ryoga's chest faster then anyone could blink, squealing in delight until someone clearing their throat caused them to look over at the previously forgotten Kasumi, who was blushing a little as the show of affection. Blushing a little himself Ryoga got Cylia to let him go and looked at Kasumi. "Sorry about that Kasumi, I've been really busy lately and it's putting both of us on edge. Wait you haven't met my partner yet have you?" at Kasumi shaking her head no Ryoga introduced them "Kasumi this is Cylia Blodmore, my partner and girlfriend. Cylia this is Kasumi Tendo caretaker of the Tendo dojo and friend to Ranma and myself."

Kasumi And Cylia bowed to each other before Cylia spoke. "It's a please to meet a friend of Ranma-sama and Ryoga-sama."

"Oh my, it's nice to meet you as well Cylia-san." Kasumi replied while acting like she didn't hear the 'sama' comment. As well as asking 'isn't she a little old for Ryoga-kun she looks at least in her late 20's'. "If you're looking for Ranma-kun you already missed him, after the fight he hurried and left, just after declaring himself head of the Saotome Clan and annulling all the engagements. As well as kicking Auntie and Uncle out of the Saotome Clan."

Ryoga made a slight smile before answering her "I know I saw that. How's everyone taking it?"

"Uncle Genma is still not awake from the fight, Daddy is so disappointed. Auntie is heartbroken that her son would something so unmanly." Kasumi's smile wavered on a frown when she said that. "Akane is very upset, as was Uyko-chan. I really don't think anyone expected for Ranma-kun to end all the engagements and then threaten Elder Cologne like he did." Kasumi got a worried frown "I hope everything's okay with Ranma-kun he really didn't look like himself today." at Ryoga's curios look Kasumi elaborated "He's usually very confident and cocky almost, as well as carefree and happy. Today he was very serious and angry, he was still confident he'd win but he was more board with that fact then happy."

Ryoga chuckled a little. "Oh that, that's nothing to worry about, Ranma's just tired that's all. I'll make sure he gets some sleep as soon as I see him, okay?" Kasumi gives him a friendly smile and nods. "Do you need some help getting everyone back to the dojo? I could carry Genma if you want."

Again Kasumi smiles at him. "Thank you Ryoga-kun I'd like that." with Cylia leading him by a chain attacked at there waists Ryoga collected Genma and they traveled back to the Dojo. The whole time Kasumi trying to clam do and weeping Nodoka.

Just outside of Tokyo

Ranma was Ranma again, Ran had enough of walking for him. After Hotaru had stopped blushing, which had taken a hour and a half, she had told him why she had came to visit. He had to admit it was weird that the girl had gotten lost on a train and ended up in Nerima instead of Juuban but with him knowing Ryoga who was he to say she was a liar. Ran had been adamant that she wasn't telling him the truth but he just kept tell him that Ryoga could get lost looking for washroom.

Ran had taken her home after the talked some more, after the first glomp, which she hardly stop apologizing for, she quickly became shy again. She had asked a lot about how he'd done all those cool moves in the fight, Ranma wanted to brag none stop about it, but Ran just told her he study martial arts all his live and became very good at it.

So now here they were in the middle of a forest, next to a camp fire with his tent pitched. "Any thoughts on what we're going to do now Ran? Cause I don't have the slightest clue." Ranma asked while poking the fire with a stick. Since they were alone he didn't think it necessary to talk in his head.

"First we wait for Ryoga and Cylia to report and tell them there next mission. Then it's off to Transylvania, I believe that the mirror we swiped is from there." Ran explained. "Also we are going to need more money if we wish to travel that far, I believe that there's a tournament in Kyoto in a few weeks if we used that as a fund raiser we should be about to make it to Transylvania no problem."

Ranma nodded. "So what's Ryoga's next mission going to be? We've been running them pretty hard since the trip to hell you know."

Ran snorted "With him always attacking us he's earned everything thing we've thrown at them. Besides he wanted to become stronger this is the way to do it."

"I understand that but even he needs time off to recover, and what about Cylia she's not to blame for anything and she travels with him you know." Ranma replied quickly. "I just think some time off is in order."

"Fine, I know what we can do." Ran replied while he stared into the fire. Seeing the confused look on Ranma's face Ran grinned. "I sense they'll be here by tomorrow afternoon, Cylia's energy was in Nerima when we left. You'll have to wait until then to find out." Ranma raspberryed him in return. Ran chuckled it off and disappeared into Ranma's shadow to rest. Ranma nodded to himself in agreement as he too headed for bed.

The Next morning.

Ranma woke up to the smell of food, which would have been normal had he not left the Tendo dojo yesterday and was sleeping in a tent at the moment. Slightly confused by this Ranma got up and crawled out of his tent, upon exiting the tent he saw the two people of last night's conversion sitting next to a camp fire cooking breakfast. Blinking a few times to make sure he wasn't dreaming Ranma smiled "G' morning Cylia, Ryoga."

"Morning Ranma" "Good morning Lord Ranma." Both answered.

Ranma rolled his eyes at the 'lord' bit but Ran had explain, as well as Cylia, that she wouldn't stop calling him it as him killing the old lord of that part of hell had made them a demon lord. "Why are you here so soon I wasn't expecting to see you guy's until this afternoon?"

"The Tendo's place was in ruins and we couldn't sleep with all the noise Akane, Genma & Soun were making. So we decided to find you early, is 'He' awake I need to report on our mission." Ryoga said the 'He' part nervously as he know all about the demon inside Ranma, and had seen the power the creature held.

"One Sec." Ranma answered. 'You awake yet Ran?'

"I am now." Ran answered to his human half while yawning and walking out of Ranma's shadow. Cylia fell to one knee and bowed her head to him as soon as he appeared, as she and Ranma were the only ones that could see him.

"My Lord." She said.

"I'll Take that as he's here?" Ryoga said swallowing nervously as he could feel dark presents in the air. Ranma nodded and Ryoga just closed his eyes "Ranma and dark Lord we have come to report on our mission. Would you hear me?"

Ranma blink, 'What the hell?'

"Cylia must be teaching him etiquette of the demon worlds." Ran said while he looked at the two. "Ranma I'd like to take this talk over, can I have the body?" Ranma looked up at his other half for a second, then Nodded. Once again the change took place, Ranma's hair came unbound and streaked with silver his eyes becoming blood red and fangs appearing from his mouth, claws from his hands. Popping his neck Ran looked at the two. "Rise and Speak."

Both Ryoga and Cylia's heads shoot to were Ranma once sat, his voice now deeper and darker. Cylia was first to realize what had happened. "My Lord!" She instantly bowed again.

Ran rolled his eyes and shook his head, he may have known the etiquette that didn't mean he was use to it, or that he liked it. He then looked over at Ryoga, who was gapping like a fish. "Didn't you want to report on your mission?"

Ryoga came out of it fast now that he was facing the demon. "Err ya Ranma, I mean demon lord, I mean dark lord, err sir…"

Ran chuckling at his stuttering. "I have chosen to go by the name Ran. Call me that."

"Yes sir Mr Ran."

Ran narrowed his eyes at Ryoga. "Just Ran."

"Eeep Sorry." Ryoga squeeked out. Ran waved it off. "Right, We got this for the temple you sent us to in America." Ryoga answered as he handed Ran the Clock. "It looks like a clock to me but Cylia told me it's pact signature device, and that there's a strong demon attached to it somehow." Ran nodded at he looked it over and nodded.

"Good I'll look into it. I have your next set of missions already planned out." Ran said, he could feel Ranma's glare at him as well as a slight disappointment from both Cylia and Ryoga. Holding in a grin Ran continued "first we are going to Kyoto were me and Ranma are going to fight in a tournament for the money to go to Transylvania, you two are to travel with us to Kyoto. From there you are to leave for Hawaii for two weeks before joining us in Transylvania, look for the castle of one Dracula you find us there."

Ryoga had to work really hard not to dance when he hear he was going to Hawaii with Cylia, like she wanted, only doing so by reminding himself they had a mission to do. "what's the Mission in Hawaii sir?"

"I want you two to get some sun, you're looking a little pale." he could almost feel Ranma roll his eyes saying 'you're one to talk.' but ignored it. "anyways it'll take a week to get to Kyoto and I don't want to travel alone so you two are walking with me. Take two weeks in Hawaii then head for Transylvania. And DON'T spend the whole two weeks in your hotel room get me?" Both nodded smiling happily. "Good now what's for breakfast we're starved."

Later that day

The group were on there way through the wood, Ranma was Ranma again and had had Cylia retie his braid. "So Ranma who was that girl?"

"Girl?" Ranma asked, conveniently forgetting about Hotaru.

"Ya that purple haired one that followed you after the fight." Ryoga explained.

"I do believe he's referring to Hotaru Ranma." Ran reminded his human half.

"Oh you're talking about Hotaru." Ranma said like he remembered on his own. 'Thanks for the save Ran.' to which he just waved off. He was happily sitting in the back of there mind, which was his normal place most of the time. "She's just a girl I met in Juuban a week ago." Ranma said while he idly fingered the Saotome honour blade from it's place on his belt.

"Oh okay. I though you had a girlfriend." Ryoga said with a bit of a grin to show he was joking.

"Oh ha ha, Ryoga." Ranma groaned back. Ever since he'd set Ryoga up with Cylia as a guide and partner, then the started being something more. Ryoga had been obsessed with Ranma getting a girlfriend.

"Oh that reminds me… here." Ryoga said fishing something out of his pack. It was a box with blue paper and a bow on top. "it's not much but Happy Birthday."

Ranma was in shock, Someone had remembered his birthday after all. "Errrr, I don't know what to say."

Cylia blink. "But Lord Ranma you haven't even opened it yet."

"No you don't understand, This is the first time I can remember getting a birthday present." Ranma explain while he slowly took the box and unwrapped it. Inside were solid black bracers with red dragons on them, and a small golden flute made to look like a dragon.

"The bracers were from me, there made out of some sort of Onyxes alloy. They're pretty heave so they shouldn't break on ya or nothing. Also they got a silk lining since you like silk so much." Ryoga explained, ignoring the fact that Ranma had said this was the first birthday gift he ever remembered getting. "The flute is from Cylia she said that you might like having something to do while you're alone with yourselves. It's Gold with emerald ring keyholes, and garnet claws."

"T-T-T-Thank You! Both of you" Ranma pulled both in to a hug, a little overwhelmed at the gifts. As soon as he let them go he pulled on the bracers, they fit like gloves. He then looked at the flute 'do you know how to play this thing Ran.'

" I might, let me have a look." Ran said as he set up into the body, he didn't fully émigré so the body remind mostly Ranma like except for the eye colour. "hummm, lets see." Ran pulled it up to his mouth and blow into it, after a few keys he looked down at it again. "Looks like we have something new to learn." both Ryoga and Cylia face faulted.

Ranma came back out and the started off to Kyoto again. He was admiring the Flute and Bracers every five seconds since that point.

Five days later.

Ran sit across from Ryoga, both were in front of a small camp fire they had going which was cooking two rabbits they had caught for supper, the only reason Ranma himself wasn't out was he had fallen to sleep and Ran was still wide awake. Since the only people around for miles knew of Ran, Ranma saw no reason for him not to be allowed to remain awake as long as he didn't feed tonight. "So, errr Ran, what do you think about the clock we found?" Ryoga asked slightly nervous of the Powerful Demon sitting across from him.

"Truth be told I don't understand it." Ran said. This made Ryoga look at him confused. "I've examined it several times already and I come up short every time. All I can tell for sure so far is that it's demon made. One scan says it's alive the next says it's not. Immensely powerful yet it has no power at all? Some how it's acting as a seal yet it's only bound to it's self? If only there was a way to activate it I could understand it, but there's no way to tell what would happen if I were to do that."

"What could happen?" Ryoga asked wanting to know what the worse case scenario was so he could prepare for it.

"Well from what I can tell, which is not much despite my tries, at full power it could wipe out ¾ the population of earth or 100,000 higher level demons, only slightly weaker then myself when working with Ranma. One on one I doubt even I could beat it with Ranma's help. However on the flip side we have no idea how the power works so it could do the opposite and make any who unlock it more powerful then they ever imagined. Once again I don't know." Ran said as he looked into the fire. Ryoga paled at the thought of how powerful the device was. "anyways get some sleep. By noon tomorrow we'll be in a city and I need you wide awake, I feel a dark presents in it and I don't want you slowing me down if we need to fight."

Ryoga nodded and crawled into his tent next to Cylia. "What's this presents you were talking about, I don't feel anything." Ranma asked Ran.

'If I'm right, and I hope I'm not, there are Hollows nearby, and that means the Shinigamis aren't far behind.' Ran said scowling

"death gods?" Ranma asked in confusion. "There are death god'S'?"

'Yes Ranma there is more then one god of death so to say. Unlike most think there are many plains in which human souls must transcend to reach heaven. It's quite easy for a being to go to hell but not so easy to reach heaven, why the gods made it this way is beyond my understanding but I do not really seek for that knowledge yet, I'm more interested in understanding this plain first. But alas I'm getting off topic. The first plain after death is the Soul Society, it's a place were souls ,after they finish there goodbye on earth and the death god collect them, go. That is assuming hollows don't get them first. Hollows are souls that are have turned into low level lust demons that think only of hunger, and like any good demon they look to fill only there needs, these Hollows eat anything living or soul, and the stronger the spirit the stronger they get. To eat a demon like us would ascend them right to a higher demon.' Ran explained as he started to fix a barrier around there camp to keep them safe for the night.

"And the shinigami's?" Ranma asked.

'Human souls who have reached a new level of spirit power control.' Ran explained easily. 'They hunt Hollows and cleanse there souls of the Hollow 'virus' I guess would be the easiest way to put it. Once cleansed the soul moves on to the Soul Society with the others of it's kind. Each Shinigami has a soul reaper sword which gives them a great deal more power, the large the blade the great the shinigami's spirit power when they start.'

"Great." Ranma dulled out, "More unknown enemies. How strong are these things?"

'My last encounter with one took me a month to recover from' Ranma groaned 'however he was a captain, one of their highest levels and it took him three months to recover. I'd say I won.' Ran said with a little of Ranma's cockiness seeping in. 'anyways tomorrows going to be along day so lets get to bed.' With that the two minds of Ranma Saotome went to bed.

Just outside Ran's barrier a set of eyes watched the two crawl into bed before slipping off into the darkness.

To Be Continued…

A/N: Yes I know this is a VERY short chapter however I'm running on low steam for this story, I know were I wanted it to go but not how to get there… U please bare with me.


	4. Chapter 4

-1Shadow's of the heart

Death, demons and girls?

Ranma had awakened early the next morning and started to work on his flute playing, which was more like a bad attempt at squawks then music but he wasn't going to give up until he could make his first birthday gift worth the thought of being given to him. Ran was still asleep in his shadow as he often was this early in the morning. Cylia was also up, as she often made breakfast for Ryoga, and Ranma when they were with him. "Ranma-sama breakfast is almost ready you should put that away and get ready." She said as sweetly as she could while cringing.

"Yes stop that infernal racket and get something to eat." Ran said as he climbed out of Ranma's shadow his ears plugged with his fingers.

"Awe I'm not that bad am I?" Ranma asked as he took the flute away from his mouth.

"Oh No!" Cylia said looking nervously at him, while Ran Shout "HELL YES YOU ARE!" at the same time.

"No comment" Came Ryoga's voice from his tent as he poked his head out. His eyes still dreary with sleep as he just woke up.

"Damn I need a cup of coffee." Said Ran as he dropped his shadowy form onto the ground next to the fire.

"And how do you intend to drink this coffee exactly Ran?" Ranma pointed out with a smirk, Ran just glared at him.

"Ran-sama, Ranma-sama please do not fight. We are nearly in town and there are many monster for you to fight there." Cylia said as she started to serve out breakfast to all of them.

"Hey Ran I was wondering something since last night." Ranma said speaking out loud to his alter-ego since everyone know about him. Ran looked up from his spot watching the fire while gathering energy from the shadow's around there campsite. "You were telling me about Hollows and stuff last night and I was wondering, Why haven't I seen any before?"

"Technically speaking you have." Ran answered, causing Ranma to become even more confused. Ran sighed while turned to Cylia. "Cylia repeat what I'm about to say to Ryoga as he needs to know as much about the enemies we're going to be fighting as Ranma does, mind you he may not have to know about them cause of his low spirit energy levels." Cylia nodded while Ran took a deep breath and looked back at Ranma again. "Okay Hollows appear all around the world, those that have high spirit energy levels can see them and ghosts. Now they mostly just eat ghosts but anyone with a high spirit energy level is in danger as well. Now as for not seeing them, Shinigami's kill these things as much as they can but they aren't always fast enough hence were demon hunters come in, youka and what not are some times hollows that the death gods haven't killed yet. That's not to say that youka aren't real just them and low level demons don't make appearances as much as hollows do, it's much easier for hollows to come here then demons because hollows are spirits that are from this plain first."

Ranma and Ryoga nodded in understanding as Cylia, who all ready knew this just explained to Ryoga what Ran had said. " So why do we have to worry? It's not like Ryoga or I have high spirit energy."

Ranma said, Ryoga nodded he'd never seen a ghost, hell he couldn't even see his own boss when he wasn't taking over Ranma's body.

"Ranma you see me right?" Ran asked, Ranma nodded. "Well I'm nothing more then a ghost of a demon at the moment."

"Ya but you said that was,, because of the ,, demon energy…" Ranma trailed off as he understood.

"Exactly demon energy works like spirit energy when mixed with Ki in a human but as I'm always saying it's a lot more versatile and has a lager amount of magic properties in it. So because of that we are going to be a target for every hollow and any other thing that feeds on spirit energy out there, we may even be targeted by the death gods when we use my powers, and using my power will be the easiest way for us to kill the Hollows there." Ran explained. Before looking at Cylia. "Your not safe there either Cylia so stay close to me, you maybe a demon as well but you are my subject by the laws of the demon world so you are under my protection as long as you are on a mission for me, and that applies now." Cylia nodded.

Ranma put down his bowl and nodded. "Okay so shouldn't we get going?"

"Not until you give me the damned body so I can have a cup of coffee damn it!" Ran growled. Cylia blinked while Ranma sweat dropped. Ryoga just looked between his best friend and girlfriend confused on what Ran could have said to provoke such reactions.

-Three hours later in town-

Ran, Cylia and Ryoga sat in a café while Ran drank his cup of coffee. "Much better." The red eyed demon said while he leaned back in his chair. Since stepping into town they had yet to see anything out of the ordinary but that didn't let Ran drop his guard or his senses.

"So have you seen any 'Hollows' yet?" Ryoga asked nervously, as he was supposedly the only one that COULDN'T see these monsters and that didn't sit will with him.

"Have you seen anything explode or fall over yet?" Ran asked with his eyes closed

"Errr, no." Ryoga responded.

"There's your answer then." Ran said without looking up.

"How's that?"

"Think about it Ryoga. If they can kill real people then they can interact with the real world they simply can't be seen when they do it." Ran answered while trying to relax as best he could. He'd been allowed out more these passed few weeks more then he was ever allowed out in Nerima, and although he wondered about it, he didn't want to jinx his luck.

His 'luck' as he would have it ran out when he rolled his head sideways and saw an orange haired boy dressed head to toe in black robes that looked like Kuno's carrying what looked like a massive butchers knife with it's end wrapped in white cloth. 'Shinigami' he though while he watched the man come to a stop and start looking back and forth. 'what's he looking for?' Ran thought. Then he heard him.

"Rukia are you SURE there's a Hollow? You didn't get a message about it so how can you be sure?" The boy said while a girl came up beside him, she was a good foot or so shorter then the kid but walk with an air of dignity

"I can feel it, can't you feel the aura of darkness here? It's here somewhere and it's strong. Trust me Ichigo it's here, although it feels alittle different." The girl ,Rukia, said.

They were across the street, so Ran knew they hadn't seen him yet, the only reason he heard them was thanks you his advanced hearing. "Crap and here I was about to get another cup of coffee." Ran complained while waving the waiters over to pay his bill.

Both Ryoga and Cylia looked confused. "So why don't you?" Ryoga asked for both.

"Cause we've been noticed by the Shinigami's in this town already." Ran answered while he handed his money over to the waiters along with a tip.

Walking out on to the street Ran made his way towards the two who were looking for the source of the energy they had been feeling. "It's getting closer I can feel it." Rukia said on high guard. Ichigo tightened his hold on his sword while searching the skies.

Ran stood in front of both of them, more so in front of Ichigo. "Did you want me to jump up for you?" He asked with humour in his voice.

"Huh?!" Both said while looking right at Ran, who was looking right at Ichigo.

"I said 'did you want me to jump up for you?'" Ran repeated.

"You can see me?" Ichigo said in surprise. He wasn't that use to people walking up to him while he was in Shinigami form.

"How can I not when you wave that big ass blade around." Ran's grin never left his face.

"Right, um, why would I want you to jump, I'm looking for a hollow." Ichigo said while he lower his blade.

"No you're looking for a dark energy source not a Hollow exactly." Ran said.

"Same thing. " Rukia said aggrievedly

"You must be a young Shinigami to think that the only thing that has dark energy is a Hollow." Ran said tiredly as he lost his grin Ryoga and Cylia were now standing behind him. Ichigo and Rukia were looking at them confused. "Come on lets get out of the street so we can talk. You may not be see-able but me and my friends here are." Ran said as he jumped up to the nearest building top, Ryoga grabbed Cylia and followed along with Ichigo and Rukia.

After a few more jumps they stood on a high building overlooking most of the town Ran stopped and started to let out the rest of the changes that he used to fight with. His claws, fangs and wings appeared on him, joining his already silver streaked hair and red eyes. He then stood and waited for the others to catch up, which didn't take long, Ichigo was the first to appear holding Rukia, Ryoga followed seconds afterwards holding Cylia.

As soon as he saw the black shadowy wing Ichigo dropped Rukia and readied his sword. "What are you?!" He said getting in front of everyone one. Ryoga , who had set Cylia down much to her disappointment, simply walked past him and towards Ran.

"I'm the source of dark energy you feel." Ran said as he allowed black lightning to arc around his hand as he raised it to chest level in front of him. "I am a Demon and I'll be an ally if you wish it."

Ran didn't even finish saying he be an ally when Rukia fired off an spell at him. The shot of red fire hit Ran right in the Chest. Ichigo could only stand there dumbly as he saw Rukia attack without hearing the guy out, he had just said he's help them too.

"HEY WHAT DID YOU THAT FOR THE GUY JUST SAID HE'D HELP US!" Ichigo yelled at Rukia.

"Yes do tell why you would fire that weak spell at me?" Ran asked as the dust cleared show that his clothing wasn't even dirty. Both Rukia and Ichigo looked dumb founded at this. Ran waited a few seconds hoping to hear her answer but all he got was them both looking at him confused, rolling his eyes Ran decide best to explain to them a few things. "Death God Spells are 'DEMON' magic based. I'm a DEMON there by who do you think showed you how to use the stuff? And do you really think any of the spells we taught you would work on our kind?" Ran said talking down to the woman that attacked him.

"Farther more, Lord Ran is a Demon Lord foolish Shinigami" Cylia said from beside the still confused, but on guard Ryoga.

Ichigo fell into a stance as Rukia quickly paled at the new sets of information she had just got. "Well the could have done without knowing that Cylia." Ran said as he sighed.

"Forgive me my lord." Cylia said bowing her head to him quickly.

Ran waved it off before retuning his attention to the fight ready Ichigo and scared stiff Rukia. Raising an eyebrow he simply watched as Ichigo's hands clenched onto the hilt of his sword. "Why are you preparing to attack, didn't I just finish telling you that I do not wish to fight against you? I simply wish to continue traveling, however with the number of hollows in this area, along with the growing number of Shinigami's around here, I think it better to help the group that sees reason then move along quickly so that I make it to my appointment. Besides I have a few days to kill." Ran said and Ranma added the last part.

Ichigo stayed on guard as he spoke to Ran again. "Why help us if you're a Demon Lord. Shouldn't you be like trying to collect souls or something?"

Ran started to laugh at Ichigo's statement "For a Death God you really don't know much." Ran said still laughing.

"HEY! Give me a break would ya, I'm new at this whole Death God bit." Ichigo said angrily.

Rolling his eyes Ran decided to be lenient and explain. 'He reminds me a lot of you Ranma.' "Okay, Demons and Demon Lords aren't as people believe them to be, as they aren't as evil as we look we simply don't have the same moral code you humans have. We don't go around collecting human souls as we would have no use for them. Some of our kind do eat humans that we run into but for us it's no different then eating a cow to you, different creature same results. Due to an event in my world I was cast into a limbo and ended up linked with this human vessel I have yet to understand WHY I was linked with him yet but I am, and we now share this body. But I digress as I'm swaying from the point. The reason I am an Demon Lord is that I defeated the last Lord in combat in an attempt to return Ranma and myself, along with the two behind me, to this world. His spell was hindering my teleportation ability." Ran explained as simply as he could for the two.

Ichigo slowly lowered his sword, although he couldn't understand why he didn't seem to have any reason to fight this guy. "Okay, say I believe you that you don't want to fight us. That still doesn't explain why you want to help us?"

"Simple we need passage through this area in the next week. So instead of going around the city and hopping for no fighting, we decided to help a side out, and since hollows just attack randomly you pull the lucky stray." Ran said as he walked to the edge of the building and looked over the side. "Though I got to ask. Why do you have angels walking around your streets?"

"Come again?" Ichigo asked as he and everyone else joined Ran at the edge of the building.

There below them on the other side of the street were two people walking side by side having an adamant conversion. Now they wouldn't have stuck out so bad if it wasn't for the fact that they were both sporting wing jetting out of there back. One had long black hair with red tip, tied back in a braid much like Ranma wore only longer, he had four large wings colour exactly the same as his hair, and a long black furred tail. The black haired man was dressed in a red t shirt with a black over coat and black jeans. The man beside him was a shorter haired blonde and stood over the first by about 5 inches. He only had two wings be they were purest white any had ever seen. He was dressed in black as well but had silver coloured area's at all the joints and looked much more like a good guy then his dark companion.

With the two on the street.

"Shadow, why are we here again?" The blonde asked as they walked the streets.

"Simple Alex, I needed to see in the cross over worlds have a life of there own or if they only move along with what the writer wants." Shadow explained as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

"Okay I got that part but why am I here?" Alex asked as he looked at his friend/ sparring partner.

"Cause if women start attacking me to date me here I'll know it's not you doing it. And I can make them focus on you so I can escape." Shadow replied off hand as he continued looking around.

"What are you looking for you've been looking around like that for hours." Alex said getting kind of annoyed with shadow's paranoia

"The Ranma of this world should be here by now, but I don't know where he is." Shadow answered as he continued too search the area.

"Look lets forget it for now, Matt's looking for us so unless you want me to sick another thousand Cat-girls on you lets go." Alex replied.

Shadow glared at his fellow angel. "Your evil you know that."

"Whatever."

"Fine lead the way Baka." Shadow answered

"Errr I though you knew it?"

"I do but you're the one that wants to go so you're leading." Shadow replied with finality in his voice, as he stood back and watched.

Just as the two were about to walk away a few hundred women of ages varying from 18-30 in looks came around a corner at break neck speeds and stared at the two for a few seconds before shouting "THERE THEY ARE GET THEM!" Before chasing the two. Without some much as a second though both got a look of absolute fear and let there wings burst from the back and took to the sky, vanishing from sight.

Back with Ranma and crew.

All the people developed sweat drops as they watch the two would be angels run from an ever growing pack of girls. "Okay that was different." Ichigo said as he looked at the point were he lost sight of the two.

"Far to reminiscent of home for me." Stated Ranma as he took back the body from his inner demon. Ryoga and Cylia nodded at that statement while Rukia simply stared dumbfound at the scene.

AN: okay I know I've been doing this a lot but I'm really having trouble with getting all my thoughts in line with this story, as I have a few others stories on the go. So you get another short chapter for now until I can pull myself together and work on this story more. Also I'm going to be adding little bleeps with me and some of my friends in for chapter fillers they aren't going to have ANYTHING to do with the story as a whole but Ran and the others will be able to see them and find them more as a entertaining side show then anything else. looks at notes then looks up next, I'll try to post my other stories so you can see what's taken me so long to update as soon as I can get a hold of the per-reader for them. looks down again and then back up oh and this little adventure with Ichigo and then is simply a little side trek from the real story as I have no real idea at them moment how I'm going to get Ran and Ranma from here to castlevina curse of darkness time line. Or how to make this into any other cross over I have planned for it. But I'll figure it out at some point. Bare with me. And review on who you think I should pair Ranma up with, I'll answer you as soon as I can, I'll see if I can swing it. But as anyone who knows me knows AKANE IS A NO! thank you.


	5. Chapter 5

-1Shadow's of the heart.

Walking the line.

Disclamer: don't own nothing, don't know nothing, don't ask me nothing. Cause I don't know. :P

Ranma sighed as he sat in around the table across from the local Shinigami, Ryoga and Cylia flanking him. None of them seem to understand what he was trying to explain other then Urahara and this Yoruchi, who Ran had decided to call, 'Hat-san and flasher'. After interdictions had been made, with Ranma had been the one to do, all except those two, and an orange hair girl had instantly reacted as Rukia had. Ran was now standing behind Ranma in his normal shadowy form.

" So you're a guy demon?" Orihime asked, Ranma nodded while Ran just blinked at her almost air head like reaction to him. "and not a mean Hollow?" Ranma nodded again starting to smile. "Then where's you pitchfork? I mean if you're a demon." Ranma hit the floor while Ran groaned.

"I KNEW she was to much of an airhead to hold a coherent thought for long." Ran moaned out while he hopped in the air and floated there.

"You can't interact with the Real world as you are can you." Ishida said while pushing up his glasses.

Ran looked at him, "Not directly, as such, No. I, as I am now, can not make physical contact with objects. I can however still use my energies to effect physical objects, and while merged with Ranma here I have full access to effect both the corporeal and incorporeal" Ran explained. Uryuu Ishida was the cleverest one of the bunch as far as Ran could tell. He quickly understood what was going on once he was explained to, he'd already voiced that he didn't trust them, to which Ran had to grin, but understood that they weren't here to fight. 'that and when he felt our energy levels he backed off quick enough helped A LOT'

'Give him a break Ran, everyone here other then Ichigo and Whitey-chan there are so far below us that they couldn't hit us if we where blindfolded.' Ranma said through there link, as he had heard Ran's thoughts.

Ran's eyebrow shot up at Ranma's comment. 'I wouldn't bet on that hat-san and flasher are suppressing their power enough that it looks painful.' Ran answered before looking at Toshiro Hitsugaya or 'whitey-chan' as Ranma had doubted him. 'and that one has a seal lock on his energies.' Looking around Ran noticed that quite a few of the people here had a lot of power backing them. However Ichigo seemed to have the most, and he hadn't reached his full potential it seemed. 'It's a same that kid's a shinigami, I bet he'd make one heck of a demon lord with that kind of power.'

Toshiro noticed that Ran seem to focus his attention between Ichigo and himself for awhile during the conversion was taking place even while Ranma and the other explained what exactly the were planning, and why they were here. 'assessing potential threats, comparing power levels, very tactical minded for someone that claims to be here peacefully.' "Why are you evaluating us, if you're here peacefully?" Toshiro demanded while staring directly at Ran.

Ran waved Cylia down before she could scold the captain for ordering a demon lord to answer. Turning his ethereal eyes to boor into Toshiro's he answered with an equally commanding voice. "Why do you question someone that offered his assistance in you're war? And make no mistake I've felt the waving energies around here I know you are warring with someone, otherwise you're seal would not have been released once already." Toshiro was taken back that Ran was able to see that the seal had been released once already. The others gasped as well. Ran nodded "Yes I see the seal still trying to finish locking it's self again, not like when first put in place, it's weaker now that it's been opened once and then resealed. You must know that any good demon would learn sealing art's in order to preserve him or herself on the earth plane. As is custom for humans to attempt to seal our kind, to learn a hunters weapon is to escape the hunters grasp."

Toshiro stood up, "Simple, I am the only Captain on the earth plane, it's my job in insure the safety of the shinigami here."

Ran didn't move other then to nod at Toshiro reply, as well as his own assumption that the 'boy' was in fact a Captain. "And is a Demon Lord it's my responsibility to insure that my subjects are safe" Ran said while waving his arm over the three sitting around him. The others gasped at the fact that Ran was a Demon Lord, other then Ichigo, Rukia, who already knew, and Uryuu. "Well you don't seem surprised Young Destroyer." Ran said with a quirked eyebrow.

Ishida just narrowed his eyes at the Shadowy being. "I've had my share of run ins with demons. Your energy out straps them so much that it is only logical to assume that you are of higher ranking."

Ranma smirked at this, "Glad to see one of you was paying attention during the conversion." 'Ran is there anyway these people could teach Ryoga to see ghost so he could be more involved in these conversions? As well as useful in fighting Hollows?'

Ran stopped while he thought about it, 'hmmm, maybe. Let me have the body I have an idea that may fix Ryoga.' Ranma rolled his eyes at Ran's commend tone of voice but decided to let it go as he knew that Ran was just to far into his roll of being a Demon Lord at the moment to realize what he did. Closing his eye Ranma released his control over the body to the demon inside him. Ran took control fully to show everyone present what he looked like while in control but held back ¾'s his full power, putting himself on par with Ichigo without his bonkai. "I have a slight request of you? My subject here…" Ran waved his hand over Ryoga, "is completely devoid of any spiritual senses and as you know, someone that can't see a hollow when it attacks is in as much danger as it's target. Since he is traveling with me I would like for him to be able to at least get out of the way of an attack, to do so he needs to be able to see said attack. However since he is a human my energy would only harm him in injected into him without me being present to adjust his system to use them, to do that I need to be inside him 24/7 which would only kill my present host." Ran stopped so everyone digest what he said. Seeing them nod he continued. "What I request is that one of you, more pointedly you Ichigo, allowed me to siphon some of you Spirit energy out and inject it into Ryoga here so that he could develop some of his own spirit energy."

Everyone blinked in surprise at the request, before narrowing there eyes at Ran. Ichigo was the first to speak. "What?! How would that work?"

"Simple really, once a being has an amount of spirit power inside of them there body automatically starts to reproduces more in order to maintain whatever power is being used." Ran explained.

Ishida suddenly started speaking continuing Ran's explanation. "Sort of like a spiritual booster shot, much like Chad and Orihime. Once he has some spiritual power inside of him, he will develop spiritual awareness and with it his spirit will be use to that much power and start to recharging to that level of energy." Ran nodded. "But why Ichigo?" he asked to which the others nodded and looked back to Ran.

"It has to be Ichigo because he's leaking much energy that it would have been him to cause Ryoga to develop his awareness anyways, that any none of the others with enough power to spare are human. One the donator must be Human, otherwise the energy will not mix correctly inside Ryoga, it will simple wilt away and be useless to him. Two, you other humans either have to tight control over your energies that to take it would almost be painful, or not enough energy for me to extract the needed amount and still be useful if a fight was to erupt in the next four hours. " Ran explained more pointedly looking at the humans in the group as the request was more to them then anyone else.

Everyone was quiet for a little while before Ichigo finally sighed, looking at the almost hopelessly lost looking Ryoga he turned to Ran "Do it."

- Nerima-

Kasumi sighed again, something she'd been doing a lot of since Ranma had left. Akane hadn't stopped her temper tantrum from the moment Ranma had told her she wasn't allowed to use her 'art' anymore. 'Not that she listened' Kasumi thought sadly as she set about getting her shoes. She was on her way to the drug store to get stomach medication for the fathers. Akane decided to 'treat' everyone by making breakfast while she was in the bath. 'maybe I should take a page from Ranma's book and leave.' She thought as she opened the door only to see a young girl in front of her. "Oh my, may I help you?" Kasumi asked while putting on her cheerful mask.

"Ummm I'm l-l-looking f-for R-Ranma?" Hotaru asked quite nervously.

"I'm sorry Miss…" Kasumi asked politely.

"Hotaru, Tomoe Hotaru." Hotaru stated shyly

"What a nice name." Kasumi said happily smiling down at the girl, causing Hotaru to blush a little. "I'm sorry but Ranma doesn't life here anymore."

"Oh." Hotaru said with a sigh. "I guess it was a long shot anyways." She muttered disgustedly

"Are you okay Hotaru-chan?" Ever the helpful, Kasumi, asked.

"No I'm okay." Hotaru said trying to put up a brave front in front of the elder girl.

"Now don't believe that for a second." Kasumi said as she knelt down and used the cuff of her dress to wipe away the tears that had escaped Hotaru's eyes without her notice. "I'm on my way to the store why don't you come with me and we can talk." Kasumi said while smiling caringly, and as everyone knows no one can refuse a Kasumi request.

As they set off, Kasumi holding Hotaru's hand while they walked off Hotaru started explaining to the elder girl what had was bothering, not once realizing she was basically pouring her heart out to a perfect stranger. All fear and hail to the power of the great Kasumi Tendo. Grin.

-Several hours later at a small tea shop-

"… and that's about all I know about it." Kasumi had just finished her telling Hotaru all she knew about Ranma's life. "Up until a couple of weeks ago he was pretty well only known for his, well basically Cocky, attitude and awesome martial arts ability. However more and more he's been quieting down and steadily getting more… Board I guess you could say."

"Wow." Hotaru said in real awe that someone could have a life that made even being a sailor senshi's look calm in comparison. "I never realizes Ran-sanpai would have had such a hard life."

"Um, I've been wondering, why do you always call Ranma Ran? I've never heard anyone call him that." Kasumi asked.

"Really? One of the first things he said was to call him Ran." Hotaru said while thinking it over.

"What colour where his eyes?" Kasumi asked looking thoughtfully at Hotaru.

"Umm red, why?"

"Ranma's eyes are cobalt blue." Kasumi said while remember back to the night he made the challenge to Genma for the clan. "Except for once. When he challenged his Father to that fight."

Hotaru looked at Kasumi confused until she finished. "That fight last week?" Seeing Kasumi nod Hotaru smiled "That was Ran-sanpai, I got to talk with him after the fight so I know it was him." Hotaru didn't know why but she felt very happy around Kasumi-san and wasn't nearly as shy. She didn't know nor did she care, it felt like she finally had a friend she could talk with. "What's the matter Kasumi-Oneesan?" Hotaru asked seeing the almost distort look on the older girls face.

"Oh my, it's nothing Hotaru-chan." Kasumi attempted to wave it away only to see the 'Yeah Right' look she resaved and sighed, letting the mask fall away a little more. "Well you see, as I said earlier Ranma's eyes are cobalt blue. But then I've seen he eyes change to red only a couple of times, and when they do he seems like a different person." Kasumi explained. "It's almost like he's not himself, yet he is still in there just hiding." She said trying to explain what it looked like when Ran took over. "If it hadn't happened right in front of me I'd swear their were too different Ranma's out there."

Hotaru nodded, quite stunned by information that Ran wasn't the Ranma everyone here knew. "So Ranma, isn't the Ran I know?"

"I'm not really sure but there's only one way to know for sure." Kasumi said putting her finger to her lips while looking up in thought, Hotaru leaned in to here. "ask him." Only to hit her face on the table when she dropped from the face-fault.

Slowly lifting her head while saying 'ow' she looked back at Kasumi. "But Kasumi-neesan we don't know where Ran-senpai is."

Kasumi got an almost evil grin, which looked totally out of place on her, and answer "True but I know someone who can help us track him. With only the smallest amount of trouble. Assuming you remember where he was heading after the fight." Hotaru nodded. "Goody I wanted to get out of the house anyways. Now to find Shampoo." Kasumi said while standing up.

Hotaru followed just alittle confused about why Kasumi need a hair care product to find her Ran-senpai but wasn't about to ask as the Older girl lead them out into the street.

-With Ran and Ranma-

Both Ran and Ranma just recovered from a sneezing fit and now where looking around nervously as the walked the streets with Ichigo, Ryoga who could only stare in wonder that he was now able to see ghosts floating around, and Cylia.

"Are you alright my Lord?" Cylia asked while looking at the two.

"Yeah I just got the feeling of overwhelming dread." Ranma said. "Like someone I know is coming to get me, only a lot stronger."

Ryoga instantly went to high alert and started scanning the area as well.

To be continued.

A/N: for starters, this Chapter is out late because I lost my hard drive a little while ago and with it all my stories. Being the Baka I am I didn't save any of the info to back up disks so I lost everything. Having to start from scratch. (that includes all the anime I collected via download. 3 years of collecting anime, anime pictures, and AMV's gone in a flash.) so it's been re-written and updated to what I know from watching as far into the series as I could. This means I've jumped the Story ahead a little from Bound to after Uryuu regained his powers and Ichigo is half hollow. Which is were Ichigo and Ranma are going to make a connection, both having to walk the line between Darkness and Light. I intend to go into that more in the next chapter but as it is I wanted to get this one out so that everyone knew the story didn't die, nor did I.

Thanks for all the reviews and my personal thanks to Apeinkoss for pre-reading this. And being a sucker to my jokes at times, as well as making me a sucker to some of his. And to Sa-chan for kicking my ass to get me working on my stories again. Thank you and good night.


	6. Chapter 6

Shadow's of the heart

Waking the past, fighting the future

Ranma looked at Ichigo as they sat in the hotel room Ranma had rented. Ran was 'gone' somewhere; Ryoga and Cylia were in the room connected to his. Ichigo was with them, back in his body, and the two had simple been talking. "So you just let him use you for whatever he wants?" Ichigo asked visibly confused about how Ranma would just 'let' a demon take him over.

Ranma honestly chuckled at Ichigo's question. "I think you're misunderstanding mine and Ran's partnership. He doesn't 'use' me as much as we 'use' each other. See I'm a Martial Artist, trained to be the best of my generation, but the training was a little bit TOO extreme. During one 'training' exercise' my 'father' cooked up I died." Ichigo looked at him like he was crazy; as it was apparent, he was still alive and sitting here. "Ya I know what you're thinking, but hear me out. My body hadn't finished dieing but I would have been had Ran not appeared and stepped in, he was connected to me from the ether stream between worlds, and pulled to me when 'something' inside me woke during the exercise. He made me a deal while I was lying there about to die. He'd heal me, give me power, and be with me for the rest of my life if he could live inside me and use my body during the times of the full moon."

"So you get his power and his protection so that he can live inside you?" Ichigo asked to clarify what he had just been told.

"Yep, the reason he can come out so often is I let him control my body. We work together to co-exist. He don't exactly got high morals values when it comes 'Ta human life but then ya can't really blame him for that he is a demon after all. However he's been getting a lot better with it." Ranma answered with a laugh. "So what about you, who's your demon?" Ichigo gasped. "Hey what do you expect, I've got a demon in side of me, he's been teaching me how to pick out different energies like demon, human, spirit and what not."

Sighing Ichigo relented and looked at Ranma "I have a Hollow inside of me."

Ranma blinked and thought about what Ran had explained to him about hollows "Wait how's that work, don't Hollows eat human spirits not take them over?"

Ichigo snorted. "Looks like Your friend didn't tell you everything about Hollows."

"I didn't think it was necessary as it's hard enough to explain the basics to Ranma without taking a hammer to him to make sure he's paying attention." Ran said as he floated in through the window.

Both boys jumped a little in surprise at Ran sudden appearance." Hey don't stop on my account, I may be old, but even I don't know everything and am intrigued by your condition." Ran said as he sat down on the bed and listened to Ichigo.

Taking a breath Ichigo started to explain. "As I said I have a hollow inside of me, he IS me, I guess you could say, or at least a part of me. See my sword is basically the source of my power and its split into two beings inside my soul Old man Zangetsu and the Hollow Zangetsu." Ichigo explained as Ranma and Ran listened to the explanation. The whole time Ranma keeping a grip on the Saotome honor blade. "He tried to take over my body, saying I was weak and needed to be destroyed. So I fought him and took back control over my body."

"Why'd he say you were weak?" Ranma asked

"Because of me regretting defeating the people I've fought in the past. I was sorry I killed them, because they were only fighting for what they thought was right." Ichigo explained.

"So he was helping you." Ran said from his spot on the bed. This caused both other boys to stare at him.

"What? He was trying to kill me!?" Ichigo yelled.

"No if he was trying to kill you he wouldn't have explained why you were losing to him." Ran said while he looked on impassively "However he did, he explained it perfectly so that you could understand and correct it. You need to understand something Ichigo. No matter what happens Fighting is always going to happen, anyone with any power will be drawn into the fight wither they want to be or not, and those that regret fighting will only fall in battle. It's okay to not enjoy fighting, and even respect those you've beaten, but cherish there memories don't brood over them." Ranma nodded as he remembered Ran telling him the same thing in the past. "From what you've told me your Hollow simple didn't want you to die on him and decided to give you incentive to take back you're edge, while keeping you alive long enough for you to learn your lesson before it was too late."

Ichigo blinked while thinking back, it made sense. The Hollow only appeared when he was almost dead at first. Only starting to try to take over when he started losing to his own regrets or fearing what might happen after. Now after take back his control he was even stronger then before.

"Although low level Hollows are a form of demons, the stronger they become the smarter they become. However, they, like all my kind, don't have the same moral compose as human. If this one dose has a feeling of connection to you he'll likely try to help you in his own twisted sort of way." Ran explained while thinking about it. "However, he is a demon and would respect straight more then compassion. As well, he would see you as a link to becoming stronger. Which is good because if you can sway him into understand that with you, you both became much stronger then alone. As well you can use him as a sparing partner to increase your own skills." Ran explained while smirking. "However it is coming up on midnight and we all need sleep so I suggest that we hit the hey."

Both other boys nodded and walked over to the two beds in the room, each taking one, while Ran simply slipped into Ranma's shadow and disappeared. 'I really need to pick a fight with someone to vent some of this frustration.' Ran thought while disappearing into the darkness.

"Hey Ranma, want to come with me to visit some people tomorrow? They're the ones that helped me suppress the Hollow me." Ichigo asked as he climbed into the bed across the Room. 'I'd love to see the Vizards reaction to Ran and Ranma here.'

"We'll see." Ranma said as he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

The next day.

Ranma stood with Ichigo in front of the warehouse that the Vizard used as a base of operations. Ichigo walked in as if it was nothing while Ranma and Ran observed the barrier they passed through to enter. Ranma was a little worried about it before Ran copied the energy pattern and made a bubble around them to enter. "Impressive barrier they have here." Ran commented from inside of Ranma.

Ranma nodded while the walked to the stairs to the basement of the building. "Interesting friends you keep Ichigo." Ranma said while he let a hand slip to the Saotome honor blade, ready to draw it at a moments notice.

"Indeed, and you seem to be a truly interesting one." Spoke a thin blonde man with an overly wide smile that didn't seem to know how to leave. "Just who might you be?"

"Isn't it common place to give your own name first before asking another there's?" Ranma asked while scanning the area. There were eight people standing around the warehouse in different levels. The blonde guy was on the highest level with two people flanking him. A shorter blonde girl and a teen in a school uniform.

"Ah, that is true, however that doesn't hold true when said person invades the others home." Blondie countered.

"Relax Hirako, I bring him here." Ichigo yelled up.

"YOU FUCKING IDIOT! THIS IS OUR HIDEOUT!" The little blonde kid screamed.

"Temperamental isn't she." Ranma said off handedly as his back leg slipped in it a stance to block a fast attack that he knew was coming.

"Overly so" Shinji sighed as the Blonde had already attacked Ranma, who had blocked and launched her to the other wall with one smooth motion, sheathing his sword as quickly as he drew it. Causing everyone there to blink as it seemed she was repelled by an unseen force.

Following Ran's instructions, although reluctantly, Ranma looked back at Shinji. "Fine my name it Ranma Saotome. Grandmaster of Anything goes martial arts. And you are?" Even while saying this he was forced to strafe left to avoid another attack from the blonde little girl.

Grinning, as Ranma was apparently way above her in skill, Shinji decided to see if he could hold a conversion with him while Ranma was fending off Hiyori's attacks. "I see, I am Shinji Hirako, the one attacking you is Hiyori Sarugaki we are the Vizard," he said the last while swiping his arms out.

"I see" Ranma said while having his arms crossed and dancing around the sloppy though fast attacks.

"AH FUCK THIS! HACHI A LEVEL 7 BARRIER!" Hiyori screamed while forming her mask and attacking Ranma full out. The sudden increase in attack power and speed caught Ranma off guard and landed a nick on his left arm.

Snarling at being hit Ranma summoned Ran's powers causing his eyes to flash bright red before a HUGH discharge of black lightning shot out in every direction slamming the girl into the wall and knocking her out cold. The Blast also had the unexpected result of shattering the barrier that Hachi had put up, causing everyone to be knocked off their feet. "Ever hear of over kill Ranma?" Ichigo said from his place on the ground.

Ranma could only blink from where he stood; everyone was trying to clime to there feet. "Umm, oops. It wasn't supposed to be that strong." 'Ran what the hell happened? You said these guys's were as strong as that Captain from hat-san's place.'

"They are! Either they are getting weaker or our power is a lot stronger then I anticipated. I've noticed that my Mana has been thicker but I never thought it'd be this strong." Ran answered while he thought about it. "Mind you last time I fought a Shinigami was 100 years before I got stranded in the ether steam. So I could simple be trying to gage from outdated information."

Ranma wanted to roll his eyes at the fact that Ran hadn't thought about the power differences from 100+ years ago to now, or the fact that they were now a demon lord on a whim instead of the demon lord Ran had been before that he had to Really work at in-order or get to. "Um sorry about this." was all Ranma could say as he looked at the mess he'd made of the area with one off the cuff blast that had only been meant to knock the girl back and shock her a little.

-With Kasumi and Hotaru-

Shampoo was easy to get into there plan. All Kasumi had to do was promise to help lead her to Ranma, as long as she didn't tell anyone not even Cologne or Mousse. She had been reluctant to leave her great grandmother at first but the way she'd refused to go after Ranma after the fight was enough to make Shampoo give her word not to tell.

So here they were walking out of Tokyo towards were Ranma had camped. Hotaru had said that this was the way they were walking when she had caught up to them. Though the trail was a week old, Shampoo had been pretty sure that since there hadn't been any rain the trail should still be follow able assuming they hadn't covered there tracks.

Luckily for them Ranma had left it up to Ryoga to break camp, and cover there tracks. Who had accidentally left some cooked rabbit bones laying about. Using that as a camp location Shampoo managed to discern which way they were heading by dead branches and broken tree limes that had freshly fallen. "Why you look for Airen little girl?" Shampoo finally asked as they started following the path towards where Ranma and Ran had gone.

Hotaru blinked at the Amazons broken Japanese "You mean Ran-senpai?" causing Shampoo to blink.

Kasumi, knowing where this would go if left unchecked, quickly spoke up to make sure the misunderstanding stayed uncorrected. "No Shampoo, she's not looking for you're Ranma, she's looking for someone that we think is traveling with him."

"AIYA! This Ran her Airen?" Shampoo asked.

The normal Kasumi would have blushed but this Kasumi decided to play with this joke a little, as it was apparent that Hotaru was trying to understand what Airen meant.

"She's hoping so." Kasumi said with a smile. Shampoo's eyes widened at the smile, and she started to grin.

"Too Too Nice girl, acting like middle sister now?"

"Who me? Never!" Kasumi shot back trying to look as innocent as possible. Something she could do almost perfectly any other time if it wasn't for the grin that was trying to break her face in half. Shampoo laughed at that, in a friendly manner. (Not that anyone cannot be friendly with Kasumi.)

"FOR GODS SAKE WOULD YOU TWO LET UP!?!" All three girls looked up in surprise when they heard the yell. What they saw shocked them even more then the yell it's self.

There in front of them stood two angels and a dark haired boy with large dragon like wings. One angel had four black and red wings; the other had two unnaturally white wings. "I already have 7 wives for crying out loud now you expect me to marry more?!?"

"What's so wrong with it Shadow?" The Dragon winged boy asked. "I mean you've almost reached the classification of embodiment of Chaos in heaven's computer. So you're already allowed as many wives as you want."

"Hiryo, not all of us are like you, who can't get enough wives. Hey, there's an idea, you go and get more wives. Leave me the hell out of it." Shadow shot back.

"Aw com'on man we're only trying to help. Relax." The white winged angel offered.

"Help Who? The girls or your own perverse sense of humor?" Shadow snarled glaring his friend. "Look Alex you want to attend a wedding so bad got hook up with those girls chasing you across the multi-verse. I have enough problems with Yu-chan trying to do this to me I don't need you two helping her."

The three girls could only set there and stare as the three guys walked away and disappeared as quickly as they appeared. "You two saw that too right?" Kasumi asked, to which Shampoo and Hotaru nodded. "Okay good I thought I was going crazy."

"Shampoo think we all crazy." Shampoos said as she stared at were the others disappeared to.

"At least we aren't going there alone." Hotaru said in a shocked off the cuff remark. Surprising herself that she said it. The other two looked at her for a second before shrugging and nodding that she had a point.

"We move now, before Airen trail disappear."

To be continued.

There you go Hiryo bro, you got your first in set in my Story, first but most diffidently not your last. In case anyone else is wondering, yes I'll keep adding people I know into my little bleeps that well appear every few chapters. Shadow's crew will just hop in yelling or complaining about 'something' for laughter's sake. And for the record, since I don't know how to have the other's beside Hotaru seeing ghost they will catch up with Ranma and crew AFTER the bleach arc.


	7. Chapter 7

-1Shadow's of the heart.

Chapter 7

Leaving the hollow heart behind

Ranma sighed as he started walking back where he'd left Ryoga and Cylia at the hotel. It's been a nice workout fighting off the Vizards that had attacked him all at once, other then that Hachi and the temper girl that's still out cold. Had Ichigo not asked to see him go all out on them Ranma wouldn't have bothered them asking for the fight. As it was, he was sore and stiff 'mind you, it was a good test to see how strong we've gotten.'

"Yes, our physical skill, and strenght is not something to be blown up." Ran said as he floated along behind Ranma seemingly off in thought.

'It's "off" Ran. Not something to be blown off.' Ranma corrected with a small chuckle.

"Errr, Right. Anyways next, we should look into gauging our Magic's. Or at least practice with them." Ran said as he dropped to the ground and walked along beside Ranma.

Ranma looked at him with a confused look before looking forward again as to not draw to much attention to them. 'What do you mean, I thought those moves I was using from you attack 'list' were magic?'

Ran winced a little at the reminder of what he'd been doing with his powers. "Well, yeah kind'a, but not exactly Ranma. See, they use my energies to be formed a lot like your ki attacks. However since I'm a demon and demons are naturally magically based creatures our energy is a lot like magic, instead of ki. However that's not to say we can't use REAL magic as in spells and what not. In fact, I wish I could find a Library so I could learn some more spells. As it is I only know a few binding spells, some barrier destroyers one magic deflector and two attack glyphs I got implanted in my mind when I took the mantle of demon lord again."

Ranma went wide-eyed that his other half could do magic. 'Why didn't you tell me you knew magic?!?'

"You never asked, and before you do ask I have been working on a cure for our curse. However the most I've been about to do is cancel the water magnate part." Ran said calmly while they continued to make their way towards there hotel. "Wait! Ranma do you feel that?"

Ranma narrowed his eyes, as he knew exactly what Ran was talking about. "Yeah, three huge energy patterns just appeared. They're splitting up, two one way the strongest,-- He's heading for hat-san's place!" Ranma took off ignoring the few people that saw him talking to himself.

Taking flight Ran touched Ranma's shoulder and disappeared inside the Martial Artist's body. The second this happened Ranma's already incredible speed shot up so much that he disappeared, leaving only a wake of wind in his passing. "Hang onto the a left lamppost at the next corners the momentum alone will bring you to the roof. It'll be faster and easier to navigate from up there." Gripping his sword tightly Ranma did just that, as Ran's powers were already starting to take effect on him and he was recovering from his match earlier as he was running.

Once in the skies above the city Ranma could see, the area where he'd met the local Shinigami force minus a few. Pouring on the power Ranma could only hope he'd make it in time as he saw a dust cloud raiserise.

Elsewhere

Kasumi sat leaning against a tree with Hotaru's head in her lap ,asleep. The younger girl was exhausted from the hike. Kasumi was only fairing slightly better herself, as she wasn't use to long periods outside her house. Shampoo had set up camp and was busying herself with catching lunch for the three of them.

The Amazon smiled as she returned to see Kasumi drifting off to sleep with the younger girl on her lap. 'This reminds me of going on training trips with Ling-Ling and Lang-Lang.' Although, the Amazon had no liking for the youngest Tendo daughter she had really enjoyed being around the eldest. She wasn't a warrior by any stretch of the imagination, but the way she could handle anyone with her ever-calm attitude, or keep some sort of order in all the madness that was day-to-day life in Nerima, had Shampoo really respect the elder girl.

Within a few minutes, Shampoo had skinned and cleaned the rabbits she'd caught and was cooking them over a small fire she'd started. Disposing of the gut's and skins of the animals by burring them, the young Amazon looked at the youngest of there little group. She was small and frail, which lead the Amazon to wonder what possessed her to take such an excursion. 'She must really love this Ran person to put herself through this. If Kasumi is willing to help her to such lengths then that's the only thing I can think of which would make these two give up the easy life to rouge it and search for him.' Seeing the youngest one start to tremble a bit as nightmares started to take hold of her slumbering mind, Shampoo's heart went out to the girl. Steeling her will Shampoo nodded as she silently gave her word to herself, she'd help the girl win her Airen.

With Ranma and Ran.

Ranma stood on the roof of the building looking down. 'Okay those two got away okay. That just leaves Renji and those other's you were talking about Ran.'

"Yes but hurry Ranma something doesn't feel right about this." Ran said as he made them look towards the shop. "We must hurry."

"Right." Ranma said aloud as he poured on the speed to try to get there in time.

Arriving at the shop yard, he looked at the surroundings and almost groaned 'This is like being back in Nerima.' Shaking off the feeling, he started to scan the area for signs of what happened to the fighters. Only to watch as the two others shot into the ground and kept going.

"Ranma, Renji's energy is below us." Ran said as he watched the two holes appear in the ground.

Nodding Ranma jumped into the holes following the two. Stopping just when the hole opened up Ranma gasped. 'WHAT THE HELL?!. What's this huge hole doing under that store.' Ranma thought in shock.

"Talk about storage space." Ran said as he looked about. "This place is as big as the one that the Vizards are using."

'What the hell, does everyone here have massive holes under there houses? And where the fuck are the lights?' Ranma continued to rant in his head.

"Oh SHUT UP! I already told you I didn't know didn't I? Now quit you're bitching and get ready. It looks like funky brow's is about to bite the dust." Ran growled as he looked down to were Renji just took another shot and was now embedded with his head in a rock.

Shelving his thoughts Ranma shot forward and landed in front of Renji facing the Arrancar, "Morning." Ranma commented calmly as he looked about. "Nice place you got here. Hope you don't mind if I butt in, but I sort of was wondering if you could help me find something. I'm looking for…" Ranma was cut off when a energy blast exploded on their aura shield. "Well that was rude of you."

"What is this? You aren't a Shinigami." Huge beast replied.

"Nope name's Ranma Saotome Demon Lord." Ranma's normal smirk grew to a full-blown grin when he saw the monstrous thing take a step back. "Or maybe I should introduce myself as Ran Demon Lord of the Helta realm of the Netherworld."

"WHAT?!" The Monstrous hollow being cried out in disbelief. 'What's a demon lord doing here?' he thought as quickly as he could trying to figure out his chances of beating the being before him.

Ranma smirked more, this was going to be easier then he'd thought. "That's right, but I'm at a disadvantage now. I don't know you're name."

Thinking as quickly as he could while making himself appear as calm as he could, he prepared another volley for attack. "I am Patros. I'm here to learn how to use the Hougyoku. Join me, and we can rule together!"

Ran snorted inside Ranma, "The fool's not even a match for an aspiring demon, and thinks he can be an equal for a Demon Lord." Ranma snickered.

"Tell me O Great Patros." Ranma said with such sarcasm it made Renji behind him snicker, "What would be the point of helping you. As I said I'm already lord of the Helta realm of the Netherworld, if I wanted to rule somewhere I'd be back there."

Patros already riled by Ranma's mocking him; simple snarled and released as powerful an attack as he could on Ranma.

Seeing that attack would break through his barrier Ranma jumped back, grabbed Renji, and quickly lunged off to were the three, as Ran called them, modified souls were hiding. "Watch this guy while I go play with knuckle head over there." Ranma said before flying over to the released Arrancar, which prepares for another attack. 'Okay Ran lets play with this guy.'

"Really, I'd rather we didn't Ranma." Ran said while he looked over at the would be monster. "I'm tired and he's pathetic, He's using Lai style swordplay."

'You mean that style were they just draw their swords really fast and attack with the compressed air?' Ranma asked while he danced around the attack punching the monster with ki reinforced punches that were strong enough to crack his shell. But it soon became apparent to all that Ranma was playing with Patros.

"Yeah something likes that. Only his using it to release spirit energy like our ki attacks." Ran explained while stifling a board yawn. "It's a good style to learn for opening attacks or distance attacks but only if you can use another style incase someone stops you're attack, cause if you can't re-sheath you're sword you can't attack again."

Ranma grinned. 'In other words.' he thought as he shot forward, for the first time gripping hold of the Saotome honor blade and super charging it with ki and demon energy that Ran was pouring into his system. In one clean swing, Ranma removed both Patros's arms destroying them. "Without you're blades to remove you can't attack."

"Y-Y-YOU…" Patros stuttered out while falling backwards.

"Nice trick with the 'Lai' style' by the way but utterly useless in the end." Ranma said while approaching the fallen Arrancar. "I would have liked to stay longer but you bore me and I just finished sparring all morning. I'm going to go to bed after this." With those words, Ranma shot forward again, the Saotome honor blade glows a nightmarish black and arcing with black lightning as it removed Patros's head from his body.

"Oh my you certainly made that look easy." Called a voice behind him, forcing Ranma to turn around to see Urahara, and his companions along with Chad. "I must thank you for protecting my shop and guests."

"Whatever Hat-san. I'm just here 'cause I saw a dust cloud raise while me and Ran were on are way back to the hotel." Ranma said casually as he looked back around when the other Shinigamis appeared. Ranma stopped suddenly when he caught sight of one of the Shinigamis that WASN'T at the meeting earlier. 'Wow, Look at her.!'

"Better stop drooling bud before she notices." Ran said with a chuckle.

"I see. So you were here." Toshiro said while he looked at the damage done. "I take it you destroyed the Arrancar here?"

"Yep." Ranma said while he focused on the captain. "Sorry you took to long and come play with us Whitey-chan. He wasn't that hard anyways you'd have found him as boring like I did."

Toshiro was twitching when he heard the nickname, and glaring at Ranma to a degree before Ran came out and the body changed to the inner demon. Everyone felt the change before they saw it, as the air became heavier and the room darker. "Please excuse my other half he was trying to impress your lady friend." Ran said as he stepped forward and bowed his head to Matsumoto, "I am Ran and my other half is Ranma, it is a pleasure to have finally started to meet the other Shinigamis instead of only feeling them out there. However we were in the middle of getting dinner so please excuse us." With those words shadows condensed at Ran's feet before swallowing him as he teleported to the surface,. where he instantly fell to his knees. "DAMNIT! Note to self teleporting STILL not a good idea!" getting to his knees, slowly. He staggered himself off.

A few feet behind him, another body followed him, staying out of sight.

Later that night outside the hotel.

"Are you sure about this?" Ryoga asked as he, Cylia and Ranma stood outside the hotel, all there bags were packed and carried over there shoulder.

"Yes Ryoga, we're sure. We managed to talk with some of the Shiniagami's friends. They explained that for a few months really nothing is going to happen , so we can take off and get some R&R until then. I still need to get Kyoto. So get to Hawaii while there's still time left to enjoy it. I'll call you if I want you guy's to return."

Cylia was unsure for a few seconds before bowing deeply and pulling Ryoga off with her.

Snorting in amusement Ranma turned the other way and started walking away. 'So we really going to Kyoto for that fight?'

"Yes we are really heading for Kyoto Ranma. We still need to enter the tournament and try to win the price money. From there I'm not to sure, we'll have to wait and see." Ran said as Ranma and he jumped to the nearest roof top and started hopping out of town at top speed they could reach with out supplementing Ranma's Ki with Ran's demon energy.

Even then, the pair's follower was having a hard time keeping them in sight.

Four Day's later midnight.

Ranma sat on the roof of a building over looking a shrine, half of a sandwich hanging out of his mouth. 'Is there ANYWHERE we can go and not find trouble?'

"Good question." Ran replied while they watched the seen before them play out. A woman in a Monkey suit was holding a girl a few years younger then herself, while laughing like an idiot whereas some kids where yelling at her. Separating the two was a wall of fire.

'Should we lend a hand?' Ranma asked while he saw the women summon two bears.

"Which side? We don't know who's the good guy, or who's the bad guys yet." Ran answered. However, he seems to have gotten his earlier wish when the youngest child there summoned a massive gust of wind that blow out the fire.

A smile slowly spread across their face while only whispering one word. "Mages."

To Be Continued.

Shadow sat in the new apartment he shared with his brother with a tired sigh. When he heard a knock at the door to his room. "Yeah?"

"Hey Shadow." Ranma said as he and Ran walked into the room in their own bodies. Ran's true body was taller then Ranma by about 4 inches and half an inch wider off each shoulder. His wings were draconic looking and his tail long and thin with three sets of spines that ran down its length. His hair was pure silver and his eyes completely red with black irises. He wore a black mussel shirt that allowed the horns from his shoulders to be exposed without damaging the clothes.

"What's up you guys?" Shadow asked as he looked up.

"Ranma and I were wondering, you're story seems to be wondering from one point to the next as if you've lost you're plot line." Ran said in his well-cultured and smooth voice that didn't suit his appearance at all. "When are we going to be crossing over with curse of darkness?"

"Yes about that." Shadow said chuckling nervously. "I sorta lost my inspiration for that Crossover. One of my reviewers wanted me to Cross over with Negima so I was going to do that one next. Then maybe some MKR or some such thing but I don't really think I'll get to curse of darkness anymore, maybe but don't hold your breath on it."

"You really don't ever plan you stories out do you?" Ranma asked as he fell into a chair in the corner in the room.

"Nope, it'd get to boarding if anyone knew what would come next." Shadow said. "So what are you're guy's plans for the day?"

"We were going to hit the bar want to come?" Ran said while he leaned on the doorframe.

"Sure."


	8. Chapter 8

-1

Shadow's of the heart

Chapter 8

Author Note: As asked, I'm adding Negima!? to this story. Also, Kasumi's group is going to start to catch up with Ran soon, since Ran was heading this way anyways I'm going to have him catch Negi on his field trip. Also due to the request being set more towards Setsuna then Negi himself I had to get the Mangas and speed read them, so this isn't going to have much of the Anime in it.

Though I doubt anyone's really going have any problems with that, I hope it doesn't confuse anyone.

"Why I'm a Demon Lord?"

Ranma and Ran watched on in interest as the woman faced off with three children with a monkey suit sitting beside her. Ran had started heightening Ranma's hearing until they could make out what they were saying. However, what they heard wasn't helping their mood. 'So that brat's a teacher?'

"That's how it appears, and since that woman has this place LACED with traps I think she's the one that's kidnapping the one over her shoulder." Ran answered while he watched intently.

'So we help the kids?' Ranma thought as he started to stand.

"WAIT!" Ran yelled.

"What?! We know who the bad guy is. So what's the problem?" Ranma asked starting to get upset with Ran's hesitating.

"Ranma they're Mages, and Partners. Even if they're kids they still sit in a seat way beyond most fight's we've been in exempting the ones in the netherworlds" Ran said as he exited Ranma's body in his shadow body form. "Think about this carefully we may be extremely strong, and fast, but we ARE NOT invisible. Look at the curse we have as it is, magic still effects us. And look…"

Ranma followed were Ran was pointing to see one of the girls summon a magic fan of some-sort while the other drew her sword and attacked. However, both were deflected by a set of extremely low-level demon golems. Ranma blinked at that, one of them was a bear the other… "Isn't that the monkey suit that chick was wearing a second ago?"

"Yes, this is what I'm talking about, they are Mages, they don't simple use theire bodies to fight but also magic, which can increase their abilities to far greater levels simple by casting a spell."

"MAN that's so CHEAP they didn't have to work for those abilities at all!" Ranma whined as he looked at the fast moving fight.

"Not true, they all have to study the spells and practices far along time to use them, about as long as we have to train our bodies. There are also battle mages that fight hand to hand as well as train in magic; however, that I'll explain later." Ran said as he saw the older woman use the child as a shield to make the mage teacher cancel his attack. "Now we interfere in the fight."

Ranma looked a blushed a little when he saw the woman holding the girl over her shoulder while exposing her panties. "How's the teleporting spell of yours Ran?" Ranma said while getting angry at the woman spanking the knocked out girl.

Ran grinned while reentering Ranma's body "I summoned enough energy for a short distances teleport without drain. However, we have to leave some other way, as I can't do it again YET! It'd be too much of a strain on our body." With that, Ranma fade from view while reappearing on the stairs behind the woman.

"And goodbye from her butt too!" The woman said in a condescending voice.

"How crud. At least if you're going to be snide, be funny about it, or have a better pun." Ran said. Just as the woman turned around Ran snatched the younger girl out of her grasp while covering his other hand in black lightning. "That was such a bad joke I'm insulted to be an anti-hero now." With that he threw his hand forward and sent the woman towards the two sword fighting girls, forcing them apart.

All others in the area stopped what they were doing and could only stare as Ran slowly lowered his hand, which was till crackling with energy. Carefully moving the girl into a position where he could check her over for any injuries Ran nodded. "She's fine if you count being able sleep through a fight that loud normal." 'Ranma, channel you ki into her, to burn off the last of the drugs.'

"Got it." In doing this Ranma's left hand started to glow with a blue light, which is channeled into the girl healing her of the drug induced sleep. Causing her to wake up, just as the littlest girl with an over sized hat took off with the woman they'd knocked out. "Hey they're getting away."

'Crap.' Ran thought while he looked up to see they were getting away. However, before he could follow them the others surrounded him on all sides. 'Double crap.'

"Nnn"

"Oh this just keeps getting better and better." Ran commented dryly as the girl resting on his knee started to wake up.

"Huh? … Who are you?" The girl asked.

"That's what we want to know." The girl with long red hair asked while she held the fan trying to look threatening.

"You do realize you're trying to threaten me with a fan right?" Ran said with a bored voice.

"Sh-Sh-SHUT UP IT WASN'T MY FAULT! IT WAS NEGI-BAKA'S STUPID ARTIFACT!" She yelled while pointing at the only boy in their group.

"But, But Asuna-san it was a Hamanotsurugi on the card!" The child whined with teary eyes. He looked around 9 or 10 and had tiny little glasses on his nose, how they didn't fall off was beyond either Ran, or Ranma's understanding.

"Either way we thank you for saving Ojou-sama." The black haired girl said while bowing to him. Ran looked at her and was about to reply before his eyes narrowed at her aura.

"You saved me?" The girl in his lap asked before glomping him. "THANK YOU!"

"Whoa, déjà vu." Ran said while he patted the younger girls back and looked at the others mouthing the words 'get her off of me please.'

Those that saw him chuckled as they helped him pry the younger girl off his neck so he could stand more easily. "I'm Negi Springfield, thank you very much for saving my student."

"Sure." Ran said while waving it off before looking at the others. "And they are?"

"Those are some of my other students. That's Asuna Kagurazaka, with the bells, Konoka Konoe, the one you saved, and lastly Setsuna Sakurazaki" Negi said while pointing them out. "And you're name is?"

Ran smirked. 'Setsuna ah?' "See you around Negi-Bouzu." With that, Ranma activated the Umi Seanken and his body disappeared from site leave everyone, as all were hoping to get his name, gasping at the site of someone vanishing before there eyes.

At the edge of Kyoto.

Rangiku Matsumoto sighed as she looked around while in gigai. 'I know he's here somewhere, but where?' She'd been tailing Ranma since he left for here, under orders from Caption Hitsugaya. It had not been an easy task to do either. 'What is up with that child anyways? First, he moves like a captain Shinigami then he surpasses that speed,. while in a human body no less.'

She eventually was force to get a car and follow him the best she could that way. However, since he was on foot and didn't follow roads it was hard to keep taps on him. She could only follow his spirit thread so far, because of his two spirits in one body, and the fact that he was a demon; she was unable to zero in on him.

Wandering the town for a few hours she finally found an open hotel. It only took her a few minutes for her to get a room and disappear upstairs so she could report to the captain Hitsugaya.

Ironically had she waited five more minutes she would have found the target of her search.

'That was fun.,' Ranma said as he walked into the hotel, his hands in his pockets playing with the keys to his room, 'and now we know what we're going to be doing tomorrow night.'

"Yes after the tournament we should head back to that hotel they're staying at, we should get a room there as well as to keep a better eye on them." Ran commented while they disappeared into the elevator.

"Wouldn't they realize it's us?" Ranma asked after the door closed.

"I have an idea on how to fix that." Ran said with a smirk.

Kasumi's crew.

Shampoo sighed as she fell on to a bed. "Airen too, too hard to follow when not want to be followed." She stated in a frustrated voice.

"It's almost like Ran-senpai knows we're following him." Hotaru added in an equally tired voice. She was laying on the same bed as Kasumi, as the only had enough extra money to get a room with two beds. Since all three agreed that they wanted a shower and to sleep in a bed tonight, they sprang for the room.

Kasumi said nothing as she continued to read the newspaper with growing interest. 'Well I'll be, that's were he's heading! Clever boy.'

"Kasumi-neechan? Kasumi-neechan!" Hotaru said getting louder, as she grabbed Kasumi's shoulder and gave her a light shake to bring her back to reality.

"Wha, oh sorry Hotaru-chan." Kasumi said, blushing a little when she realized that she had totally zoned out on her companions.

"What too, too nice girl find?" Shampoo asked as she sat up on the bed as to look at Kasumi.

"I know where Ran & Ranma went." Kasumi stated while a triumphant grin. Both the other girls looked at her with wide eyes, which grow even wider when Kasumi held up the Newspaper page showing a Marital Arts Tournament being held in Kyoto the next day.

"AIYA! That make perfect sense. Airen need money to travel too. And since no have to give real name in crowd if not want to can say name anything Airen want." Shampoo declared while smacking the bottom of her fist into her other opened palm.

"Alright Neechan." Hotaru exclaimed while hugging onto Kasumi's arm.

"If we take the train tomorrow afternoon we'll be there early morning." Kasumi explained. "Since it'll save us walking and buy supplies it'd be cheaper in the long run as long as we don't take the bullet train."

Shampoo nodded. "Then we sleep now. Much running to do tomorrow. Need to sleep."

Hotaru snickered little at Shampoo's broken Japanese but nodded and quickly crawled into bed with Kasumi.

The next afternoon.

Ranma growled as he paid for the new room he would be staying in. 'This idea of yours is just plain out of it Ran.' Ranma was now 15 all over again. Due to Ran's plan, he'd eaten an age changing mushroom and was aged backwards to 15 years old again. Afterwards, Ran had tried to use his magic to make his curse change only his hair color to red, however, it only worked part way and he now had bright red bangs and the rest of his hair was midnight black with silver streaks. They also replaced the pigtail with a long ponytail, as it was easier to maintain and switch between.

"Look on the bright side I doubt anyone will recognize us." Ran said, as he tried not the think of how bizarre their hair looked at the moment, and was trying to figure out how their eyes had ended up with rings of red outside the blue irises.

They'd also updated their clothing again. Now Ranma was dressed in a black cargo pants, a black and red breather shirt, and long black light trench coat, with inside pockets, and Ran's sunglasses over his eyes.

'No shit, I don't even recognize myself in the mirror anymore you idiot.' Ranma yelled inside their mind as he started walking back to there room. 'Damn-it why couldn't we have the Marital Arts Tournament after this fuck up, I really need to blow of some steam now.'

"In all honestly isn't a good thing that the tournament was before we did this, if you had gone in with a head full of steam you would have likely killed the participants." Ran said while they entered there room and locked the door so that he could exit the body. "Anyways, with the money we got we should be able to move forwards with our plans. However first thing on our list should be to get an Athame as a magical focus."

"Don't you mean a wand?" Ranma asked while he quickly unpacked his stuff from stuff space.

'No I mean an Athame. Wands are made of wood and can be broken and with how you use your fists to fight it'd break on the first attack we did. An Athame is a dagger and wouldn't break as easily, as well as being useable as a weapon.' Ran explained. Contrary to popular belief, Ranma had no problems with using weapons, he simply didn't see the point in using them against his rivals in Nerima, since none of them could compare to the demons he fought with Ran. It would be plain stupid to think you could beat anything out there alone with his bare hands.

Oh he still fought with his fists first but if he was out numbered or over powered, he'd more then willingly grab an equalizer. In the fight with that Arrancar, he counted his use of sword as an equalizer as he just got out of a fight and lives were on the line. "Okay, I guess there's no helping it."

After finishing up Ranma walked outside just in time to see the child teacher make a car do summersaults to save a cat. Suppressing the wince from what was remaining from the Cat Fist, Ranma continued walking up towards the child mage. Feeling the need to be a smartass Ranma smirked as he walked by. "You know mages should really hide their magic better then that."

Hearing this Negi spun around just in time to watch as the black ponytail disappeared around the far corner of the building. "Must you antagonize everyone we meet Ranma?"

'What?! I was just having a little fun with the boy. Besides you're the one that did the flash steps to get us over here before he could stop us.' Ranma countered while the started heading for the collectors stores around the hotel looking for their soon to be focus. 'Besides, you told me that Mages didn't want the world to know they were real so it'd be hard to find any. That kid was showing his magic to that girl and I bet any money he didn't even realize it.'

"I'm not going to take you up on a bet I'd lose. We weren't even trying to hide ourselves and he didn't even notices us until you spoke. However, I think that he was slightly distracted by something. He wasn't this bad last night." Ran replied while remaining inside Ranma.

'What the hell could a kid that young have to worry about?' Ranma asked as he pushed open the door to the shop. 'And what the hell does he expect to accomplish by tailing us so badly?' Ranma could 'feel' Ran's shrug, while they started looking through the assortment of daggers and knifes.

"THAT ONE!" Ran shouted excitedly while forcing Ranma to look one interestingly designed dagger near the back wall. It was a 15" long bladed dagger whilst the hilt was shaped like a fire-breathing dragon. The fire formed the blade, creating an interesting effect in ones eyes. There were lines of gold on the blade to enhance the fires effect; the dragon itself was embedded with different types of crystals for ecstatic reasons only.

Nodding as Ranma liked the dragon look on the dagger since it matched his flute he snagged the dagger and walked over to buy it.

Outside

"What are you going to do Aniki?" the little ermine asked from his spot on Negi's shoulder.

"I'm not to sure Kamo-kun, he knows about my Magic. So, I guess I'll have to get him alone and erase his memory. I'll just have to wait until then." Negi said while he continued to wait, slipping back around a corner in hopes of catching Ranma alone.

Ranma stepped out of the shop and sighed as he looked at the corner that Negi was trying to hide behind., 'I wonder if he even realizes that his shoe is sticking out?'

"I doubt it." Ran added as he sighed as well.

'This is the most ridicules game of cat and mouse in history.' Ranma thought as he walked straight up to the corner and stepped in front of Negi. "Hello Negi-bouzo. Why are you following me?"

"ACK!" Negi cried while wiping his training wand towards the two only to have it cut in half with Ranma's new Athame,. which he instantly returned to its new holding place in his coat.

"Well that was rude, I haven't even done anything, and you're already trying to attack me. What kind of teacher are you?" Ranma asked while smirking. He almost couldn't hold in his laugher when Negi was reduced to a stuttering mess. 'Okay teasing the kid is helping my mood a lot.'

"B-B-But you… I need- my magic.. Wand.. Turn ermine." Negi stuttered out with swirling eyes.

Ran and Ranma both blinked a few time trying to figure out what the kid was trying to say. "OH! I get it you think I'm going to tell on you about you using you're magic." Seeing the swirl leave Negi's eyes and him nod Ranma chuckled and waved it off. "Nah I won't tell on you as long as you don't give me a hard time." with that Ranma did a triple jump up to the top of the building a disappeared, leaving Negi alone to walk back to the hotel alone.

Ranma got back and when straight his room. "What a day, I swear I can't go a single day without SOMETHING weird happening to me."

"Relax would you Ranma. Now get out you're flute and start practicing then it's time for a bath and bed" Ranma nodded and took out the flute that Cylia had given him. With Ran's help and stopping at a few music store for books out how to play Ranma had applied his learning curve to learning how to play his gift. So now, only a few weeks after resaving the gift he was already starting to play small songs on it and getting better by leaps and bounds everyday.

An hour later in the baths.

Ran signed as he leaned into a rock. Ranma fell asleep half way through washing and left Ran to deal with the rest of the night, unless something came up. So here he was in the bath, hiding behind a rock while the child teacher Negi Springfield was sitting on the other side. 'Today just keeps getting better and better.' Ran thought while he peeked out of the rock as the girl that had seen Negi use magic came rushing in dressed up like one of the other teachers.

Peaking around a rock Ran listened in as the girl leaned in and whispered something causing Negi to jump back "EEUUUU! HUH!?! D…Did you hear that from the principle!? B…But."

"I don't know about that, but I have a request," she said while she grabbed him and pulled him into her breasts, "show me your magic."

'Oh that was cleaver keep him off balance and confused while you try and get what you want out of him. Good for short term tactics.,' Ran thought, 'cause if realizes who you are while you're trying to play it calm you're screwed. But…'

"Shizuna-sensei did your breast get smaller?" Negi asked after pulling away.

Ran face faulted in his place behind the rock while the girl started to scream. 'Way to figure it out brat.' while he got to his feet again chuckling, at the same time as he went back to watching. The girl was now threatening to send Info of him all over the world to her friends via cell phone if he didn't co-orate with her. 'Hmmm can't have that, I need him yet.' Ran thought to himself while he looked around.

Seeing no real throwing objects, he used Ranma's ki to cut a little corner of the rock he was hiding behind away and broke it into sections no bigger then pebbles. Turning back Ran saw the perfect moment to throw, Negi was screaming while the girl was getting hit with waves of water. Flicking a single stone Ran nailed it into the screen of the phone destroying it, before the girl was launched into the air only to be saved by Negi.

Landing the girl realized her phone was totaled and both saw a small rock embedded into it. However, nothing could be said before the whole class of girls appeared in the doorway asking what was going on. Snickering at his chance Ran quickly got out and slipped behind the group tossing the stones in the air and catching them again with a smirk. Taking only a second to look Negi in the eye while tossing the stones up, almost saying, 'you own me one.' then vanishing into the change room.

Later in the lobby.

"So more people know about your magic?" Asuna asked while Negi leaned over the table. "And one of them is Asakura!?" Negi nodded.

"And the guy you said he's helping you?" Setsuna asked while she stood beside Asuna. Negi was about to answer when Asakura approached them with Kamo on her shoulder.

"HEEEY Negi-sensei." She said as she approached.

"Hey Asakura, don't pick on him okay, he's just a kid." Asuna said while stepping up to the aspiring reporter.

"Pick on him? What are you talking about? And speaking of that, didn't you use to say you hate kids?" Asakura asked in response.

"That's right; this reporter-nee san is on our side now." Kamo declared happily.

"Eh? On our side?" Negi asked intelligently

"I, News club breaking news division member, Asakura Kazumi have been moved by Kamo-chi's passion. So, I'll be acting as your agent in order to protect your secret, Negi-sensei. Nice working with you."

"EEEEEEH! REALLY!?!" He screamed excitedly

"Here I'll give the evidence photos I've been up till now back to you." She said handing them to the excited child as he thanked her.

"T… Thank Goodness. That's one problem down." Negi said while starting to relax a little.

"There, there Negi. Wasn't that nice." Asuna said while snickering and patting him on the head.

"So that only leaves the problem of the boy." Setsuna added in.

However, before they could get any farther the rest of the class appeared.

In the hallway a few feet away, Ran stretched and looked on quietly. "So what exactly are you so interested in about that girl?" Ranma asked while he was taking his turn in the back of the mind. He wasn't fully awake nor did he want to be so he left Ran in control.

'She's half demon, Crow I think. I want to know how much power she has, as well as were her loyalties lay.' Ran answered before starting to turn around only to come face to face with someone. "Ack." Ran said while stepping back.

"Oh excuse me I didn't see you there." The girl said happily.

"Gezzz you almost gave me a heart attack." Ran said while trying to calm himself down. "I must have really been out of it for you to sneak up on me like that."

"Hehe, sorry about that. My name's…"

"Konoka Konoe, I know." Ran said off handedly while he was still shaking off the fact that he'd been caught off guard. Looking over at her, he realized she didn't recognize him. He smirked 'here's pay back.' "We've meet already but you're going to have to figure out were on your own. The name's Ran by the way." That said Ran walked off.

Konoe stood there, confused at both that the boy she'd thought she'd never seen before knew her, and that he wanted her to remember him. "I'm sure I've never met anyone named Ran before."

Ran snickered while he wondered the halls. "And you say I antagonize people."

'She deserved it for sneaking up on me like that, so shut it Ranma.' Ran shot back while he tailed Setsuna. It was closing in on 11 o'clock and he was already getting board. After tailing her until she returned to her room, he started wondering the halls. "Well this is different." He idly commented while he watched some of the girls he'd seen from Negi's class trying to sneak around with pillows.

"Ack!" the red haired girl screamed while she whipped around and throw her pillow at him.

Ran caught the pillow and raised an eyebrow. "You attack me with a pillow? Nice way of said hello." 'I need a new line this is getting repetitive.' Ran thought to himself, while he looked at the blushing girls.

"Sorry you startled me." The girl said while bowing.

"No biggy, what'ch doing?" Ran said while handing back the pillow.

"It's a game to find and kiss Negi-kun." her companion offered helpfully.

"WHO'S UP THERE!" a voice boomed.

Ran blinked while the girls started to panic. 'Guess they can't get caught by the other teachers or they'd be in trouble.' Thinking quickly Ran pulled them both behind him and next to the wall while tossing his coat over them. Pulling out his flute he started to play a few light notes just as the teacher came around the Corner.

"What are you doing out of your room." the tall male teacher demanded.

"None of your business. I'm not one of your students." Ran shot back harshly while stepping completely into the light.

As soon as the teacher realized his mistake, he quickly started backing water. "Oh I'm sorry I didn't realize…"

Ran snickered and waved it off. "Relax. Just remember to look before you leap to conclusion okay? I heard noise coming from upstairs so you should look up there."

"Thank you very much. Again I'm sorry for the mistake sir." With that, he quickly started heading upstairs.

'Gotta love fear auras to get your point across.' Ran thought while he watched the teacher hightail it out of there as fast as he could. "It's alright to come out now. He's gone upstairs." Ran quietly said to his coat.

Quietly poking their head out from under the coat, the two girls sighed a breath of relief. "Thank you, I thought we were goners for sure. I'm Makie Sasaki, and this is my friend Yuuna Akashi." The red headed Makie said happily.

"Ran Helta. Nice to meet ya." Ran said while he quickly said the first name that came to mind. "Anyways you better hurry to where ever you're going. And avoid upstairs if you can."

In on of the rooms.

Konoe's eyes shot wide open when she saw the boy from earlier on the TV. "He's in the Hotel." She said in awe. After a lot of thinking, it had hit her that the boy did look really familiar but she couldn't place where she'd seen him. Now that she saw him in black and white the way his hair was pulled back made her think of when she was saved.

Jumping to her feet she ran from the room to look for that boy, 'Ran, I have to know who you are.' she thought. She'd just got out the door when Setsuna saw her leave and made chase.

After separating from Makie and Yuuna Ran saw the cameras on the walls and ceilings and started to avoid them as best he could, as well as make his way towards Negi's room as well. 'I could have sworn I'd felt Negi leave.' he thought while keeping his distance. Looking around the corner, he saw two blue haired girls facing off against two twins. However, after last time with Konoe he wasn't letting his guard down, so he felt the two other girls approach from behind him. "I take it you two are in the game as well?" Ran asked without looking.

"You're good de gozaru." Said one of the girls behind him. "I'd thought we'd managed to hide ourselves enough."

"Your ki isn't completely erased. So as long as a person is looking for people around them you'll be found." Ran replied still not looking back, until he had to reach back and grab an incoming fist. "Now that was a rude welcome." he said slowly while he let his glasses slip down his nose to show he red eyes looking back at the two girls behind him.

Both girls were well tanned, and well formed, so one could tell they were fighters. The taller had greenish gray hair while the other, shorter one had bright blonde hair. Giving the smaller girls' fist a light squeeze before releasing it, Ran turned so he faced them completely "So care to tell me why you wish to attack me?"

"Care to tell us why you're spying on us de gozaru." The teller of the two said while letting her hand slip behind her to grab something.

Ran smirked. "Would you believe me if I said it was for Negi-bouzo's own good?" the look they gave him was one that screamed out 'Ya right.' "Okay, it's more for my own good then his, but at the same time I can promise that A, I am of help to him, and B that I've already saved one of you're classmates lives and helped him out from a taught jam he'd gotten himself in."

"So it was you that night." A voice said behind them. Turning around all three looked to see Konoe standing there with Setsuna.

"Errr. Crap. How come, I never sense you coming?" Ran said while half way glaring at her. "I could tell you where everyone on in this building is, even have far from it the brat is. But I can't tell when you're coming up behind me." Keade and Ku started to giggle at his outburst causing Ran to sigh in defeat.

"Ran, it was you that night wasn't it?" Konoe asked while slowly approaching.

"Wait Ojou-sama. He doesn't look like the man that saved you that night." Setsuna said while stepping forwards.

Ran blinked, the hyperactive one figures it out first and smartest of the lot of them is having trouble even thought she knows all about magic? "Setsuna look." Ran said while he held up his hand and covered it in black lightning. "I use this move to knock the woman with the monkey suit away from Konoe after saving her."

Seeing the black energy moving from finger to finger Setsuna could only nod in awe that he had such control of the move. "But why did you run away that night?" Konoe asked drawing everyone attention back to her.

Ran smirked, "same reason as tonight." every blinked only to see him literally flying down the hall as his feet didn't touch the ground. Konoe somehow made her rollerblades appear on her feet and giving chase at almost matching speed, as Ran couldn't go much faster with the cramped hallways.

The chase continued for 20 minutes before Ran found himself in a dead end hallway. Turning around he started to head back the way he came only to collide with Konoe just as she came around the corner. Now as luck would have it the both ended up on the ground, lips locked.

At the same moment, Nodoka ended up kissing Negi in the lobby.

Now although the spell was designed to only work with Negi, it wasn't suppose to work with anyone else kissing, however because of both Konoe and Ran's magic, the fact that Ranma has always had a chaos aura surrounding him, and the timing of the kiss. The second kiss ended both parties found a set of cards floating beside them.

Blinking while Ran helped Konoe up he took the card that had his image on it and stared. The image depicted him and Ranma standing back-to-back facing forwards with gauntlets on and swords. Ranma was dressed in white and blue formal Chinese silks fighting outfit, and held a white handled katana and white gauntlets blue crystals in them. While he was dressed in black vest like armor, and pants, while holding a black broadsword with runes up the blade in red, his gauntlets were black crystalline looking and had red marks running through them. "You've got to be kidding me." Ran drowned out loud.

"Neat, I thought I had to kiss Negi to get one of these cards." Konoe said happily while she held the card.

"Wait you got one too?" Ran said while he looked at her. She nodded and showed him her card, which had her holding a set of fans and dressed in a flowing white formal gown. "Okay, this is weird. But, I guess it can't be helped. By the terms of the pact, I'm now your partner." Ran said while getting down on one knee before her. "Please treat me well." 'THIS FUCKING BLOWS!!'

"Oro?!" Konoe could only stare as Setsuna and Keade came around the corner just in time to see Ran pledging himself in her service.

To be continued.

Longest chapter of this story yet. My greatest thanks to Hiryo for pre-reading this for me. He's doing an awesome job on the latest chapters. I thank you for all the reviews as well they are really helping me to continue writing on this. First, mess up in the Negi time line, Konoe's partner Ran. What effects will being a demon have on the pact? What will Negi and the others say when they find out that about Ran being bound to Konoe? Why is Ran so pissed? Hehe, read and find out.


	9. Chapter 8b

Shadow's of the heart

"Why I'm a demon lord?"

Part 2

Ran was anything but happy at the moment. As he followed the girl, he was now bound by what could only be described as the most idiotic pact circle ever created. He was also cursing his own stupidity for not LOOKING at all the magic spells around the building. There had been quite a few protection spells, so many in fact, that he'd gotten bored of tracking what they were and chalked them all up to being such. 'The price I pay for my arrogance I guess.' Ran bitterly said to himself as he silently followed Konoe.

"The price we pay you mean." Ranma stated evenly in their mind. Ran had given him the facts of what happened as soon as he woke up including why they were now bound to follow the girl until a time that they were released. He'd been as pissed off as Ran had been but really couldn't fault anyone but the spell caster, unless he had a REALLY good reasoning.

"What's the matter Hilta-kun?" Konoe asked as she looked at Ran.

"Please call me Ran ma' lady." Ran stated. "Hilta is my home, which I'll explain in more detail once we arrive to where you are leading us."

"Okay Ran-kun, Then you can call me Konoe" The girl said smiling widely.

"As you wish Konoe-sama." Ran said while forcing down his temper.

"No, no, NO! No Sama. Just Konoe." She said while pouting cutely enough that it should be classified as a lethal weapon.

Both Ran and Setsuna, who had been following as silently as Ran had a first, both hit the wall from the kawaii attack. "Ummm, sure, Konoe-chan." Ran said with wide eyes. As soon as she was smiling again, both warriors released a breath, "That move is SO not fair." Ran muttered while looking at their attackers retreating form. Setsuna could only nod, as she too couldn't find a counter measure to that move.

"So what's the matter Ran-kun?" Konoe asked again.

"What do you mean Konoe-sama…err chan?" Ran corrected quickly as the cute attack was starting again.

"You seem really upset about something."

"I'll explain later ma lady. I would prefer not to have to repeat my story if it's avoidable." He said as they entered the hall where Negi and all the students where gathered. In the front of the class, the other teacher was barking loudly about some nonsense. "Why are we here Ma Lady?"

"Set-chan said that Negi-sensei could help us with this." Konoe said happily, as she clung to Setsuna's arm. Setsuna blushed bright red in response. "But it looks like we'll have to wait for him and Asuna-san."

"Why bother?" Ran said while he starts releasing some of his fear aura and walked right in front of the yelling teacher facing the class. "Negi Springfield, Asuna Kagurazaka I need to speak with you." he said with such seriousness that they instantly stood up.

"I'M NOT FINISHED HERE!" The teacher behind him yelled.

Ran turned his head around and leveled him a look that could have made even seasoned solider wet themselves, as his fear aura was escaping through his eyes, which were pointed at him, full force. "You are now." Ran said with such malice that the teacher squeaked and nodded vigorously. "Everyone else, return to your rooms and go to bed." Ran said as he took his eyes away from the teacher, who reacted by falling to his knees and crawling to the nearest exit as fast as he could. Everyone else in the room followed his example at a fast clip.

"He's free now Ma Lady." Ran said while turning and bowing to where Konoe and Setsuna where standing, shocked looks clear on there faces.

It took a few minutes for everyone to regain there senses from how Ran had scared everyone away so easily and yet seem to only do it so that Konoe could talk with Negi. "So Konoka-san, what can I do for you?" Negi asked as he looked between Konoe and the backed off Ran and Setsuna, both of whom seemed to be off in space a little.

"Negi-kun I thought you said I had to kiss you to get those cool tarot cards." Konoe said while she tilted her head to the side smiling.

"What do you mean?" Negi asked while Asuna also looked on in interest. In response, Konoe held up her Pacto card to which Negi and Asuna gasped. "How did you get that?"

"When Ran-kun and I kissed by accident in the hall way we both ended up with these cards. It was really neat. I got this neat dressed and fans and he's got some sort of mirror on himself with swords and stuff." Konoe explained in her hyperactive way.

"Aniki ask to see the cards." Kamo told him from his position on Negi's back.

"Umm can I see the cards please?" Negi asked, following the ermine advice. Konoe handed her card over without any delay. Negi looked it over with interested it was really a Pact card without a doubt, however it's edge's were darker in colour and the power inside of it was a lot greater then Asuna's card, almost as if it was able to do more then his cards. "And the other?"

"Oh Ran-kun has his," Konoe said, "Ran-kun can Negi-sensei see your card?"

Ran stepped forward and was hesitant about showing the symbol of his bond to anyone. "Are you certain Ma Lady?" Ran asked. She smiled and nodded. Taking a deep breath Ran pulled the card from one of his pockets and held it out to Negi.

As Negi reached out to take it he could feel the energy coming out of it in waves, it was almost completely black on the back and the front of the card showed two copies of Ran, one light, the other dark, both were in fighting positions with swords and gauntlets. The light one on the right with a white katana, with blue hand guard and hilt, white war gauntlets with blue jewels embedded in them. He wears light blue Chinese battle clothes with a dark blue and gold dragon on the front of it. His hair done up in a long flowing ponytail. The dark Ran had a large broad sword that with red power runes down the blade the hand guard was shaped like wings of a demon; his gauntlets were clawed and looked intimidating even on the card. They were shiny and had red lines through them; this matched the black vest and pants he wears. His eyes were piercing red and his unbound silver long hair. What threw Negi off most about the dark Ran was that he hand wings from his back that, although folded up, were easily seen. Shuddering a little from the dark feeling in the card, he handed it back to Ran, who returned it to hidden weapons space inside his pocket.

"And you say you only kissed him once?" Negi asked while looking at Konoe, who blushed and nodded. She wasn't about to admitting that she liked the kiss and wanted to do it again. "I'm not sure how you ended up with two different cards from it. What about you Kamo-kun? You made the circle."

"So it was YOU that did this!" Ran said while glaring full force at the Ermine. Everyone jumped at the anger in Ran's voice. "I should kill you for this, you better start explaining quickly." Ran's anger was so strong his battle aura was starting to slip out without his knowing.

Everyone but Konoe jumped back in fear. Konoe however was a little hurt that he was angered being partnered with her. 'Why is he so upset, did I do something wrong? Does he hate me?' she thought as she looked at the dark aura with highlights of red.

"ERK! I'm sorry I don't know how you ended up with a pact, it was designed only to effect Aniki I swear." Kamo screamed and hide behind Negi again.

Asuna quickly pulled her magic cancelling fan and tried to defend Negi, while her knees and hands trembled at the sight before them.

Reigning in his anger Ran breathed slowing to control himself before opening his eyes again. "Damn it. I had to walk into this didn't I? Kaede, you and your friends can come in now." Ran said while he looked at the hallway "Better to hear it all clearly instead of trying to piece together what you hear from ease dropping." The others in the room blinked while Kaede, Ku Fei and Asakura walked around the corner scratching their heads and laughing nervously.

Even Setsuna was surprised by their approach, as she hadn't even noticed them being there. "How did you know we were there? Aru."

"I felt your ki appear when my aura started to swell." Ran said as he closed his eyes again. "Look what I'm about to tell you doesn't leave this room. That goes double for you Reporter lady. I have little patience for double crossers, and no compunction for 'dealing' with them as I see fit." Opening his eyes on her they flashed red causing them to take a step back, once again Konoe didn't seem scared at all.

"Hai!" they all said nervously.

"Okay." Everyone took a set while Ran sat in a chair at the end of the table they were sitting around. "I am a demon.," gasps, "moreover, I have the title of Demon Lord where I come from. As the title intones, I am a ruler of the Hilta lands of the netherworld. I have a human body and human soul inside this body as well, it's like a half demon however, with all the powers of a full. We share this body, as it works to the advantage of both of us. My human name is Ranma Saotome. Now before you ask, yes he can hear us and yes he willingly allows me to stay with him." Everyone stared at him in awe as he said this. "Questions?"

"How can you be a demon? You look completely human. Aru." Ku asked.

"Not all demons look like monsters young lady, some more powerful ones evolve into beings that are almost completely human looking just with major power." Ran explained.

"Why are you so upset with this partnership with me?" Konoe asked in a meek voice,. which no one expected from the normally cheerful girl.

"Ah, Demon pacts are different from Human ones; as this seems to be a hybrid pact because Ranma and I were involved. Demon pacts are like a caged summon that prevents them from ever leaving the summoners' side. Unlike deals made with demons where we only have to use our magic to grant you a wish, a pact allows for you to use our magic as well as grants you a link with our life force. You now have the longevity of a demon, which lives for as long as their powers let them. The stronger the demon the longer they live. As well as long as the pact is in place, I am bound to you. I can't leave your side until the terms of the pact are met. However, since no terms were spoken before the pact was made, it is based on you innermost desires that you had going through your heart when the pact was established. Basically your feelings put to words when we kissed." Ran explained.

Everyone gasped when they realized what his explanation just described. "So you're saying that a demon pact is…" Kaede started to say when Ran cut her off.

"One slave made to order, yes." Ran stated simply.

"So that's why you hate me." Konoe whispered so low almost no one heard what she said.

Of course, Ran wasn't just anyone. Sighing he stood up and walked over to the younger girl and quickly pulled her into a hug. "I don't hate you Konoe. It wasn't your fault that this happened. I'm more angry at that baka ermine, but I don't hate anyone here. Evidently, no one knew what a demon pact was like, nor did anyone know that I was a demon. Hell even half-demons don't fall into the same rule as demons. They get human pacts. It was just stupid luck that this happened." Ran said while rubbing the younger girl's hair to calm her down as she had started to whimper, and almost cry.

As she started to calm down Negi thought about what he heard and the cards he'd seen. "So that explains why the cards held so much dark energy in them."

"Sort of, it's the demon aspect I think."

"You think?" Asuna asked while she looked on, still in shock at what she was hearing.

"You see, Demon Pacts don't involve cards or artefacts. That's a Human Pact thing. As demons that make pacts with humans are often considered nothing more then slaves…" whimpers came from Konoe. "We aren't given anything of power. Most humans that I remember from before my first death would be laughing at me right now."

"First death?" Kaede asked as she looked at him.

"Oh that's right you guys don't know about me. This is my second chance at life, hence why I have to share a body with Ranma. I died before, some 150 years ago. I was betrayed and my soul locked in the ether stream between worlds, before meeting a dieing Ranma and linking our souls up some 12 or so years ago." Ran explains. 'Mind if I tell them your story?'

"Nah go for it, saves me explaining who I am." Ranma said while he nervously watched Ran calming down the Konoe. "Just try not to upset the girl anymore then she already is."

'I'll try.' "Get comfortable, story time's not done yet. I'm about to explain to you the story of my Human half." Ran said then started to tell them all about Ranma's life. Stopping a few times, so the girls could rant and scream about killing Genma or cry on Ran's shoulder. . Even Negi was crying even despite of the bad history of his own. "And that ladies and gentleman is the cleaned up version of Ranma's life."

"THAT WAS CLEANED UP?!" Kaede screamed dropping the over sized four bladed throwing star she was handling. She had been planning to head out and kill Genma herself, much like the other fighters in the room.

Ran blinked, as did Ranma inside of him. "What's she screaming about, you left out half the trainings we did and she's already this steamed?" Ranma asked while wondering what everyone was so pissed off about.

'Considering most of what we went through falls into the lines of child abuse I'm not surprised.' Ran answered Ranma before looking at Kaede seriously "Yes that is the cleaned up version, I didn't want to upset any of you too much by telling you all what our whole life was like on that training trip." This statement had the effect of causing everyone to fall silent in even more shock. Of course, since he was in a 16 year old body and he said everything by how many years ago it happened, they assumed the training started at age 4 not 6, of course since some of the engagements started even before then Ran didn't really care.

Negi looked at him soulfully, "You've had a harsher life then I've had."

"It doesn't matter what's happened in the past brat, only what we do with our future. I haven't told you this for sympathy, but so that you understand why I have such scorn in my actions and why I do what I do. I maybe a demon but I'm not evil simple misunderstood more often then not." Ran said as he calmly stood away from the others. "I normally wouldn't care what you thought of me, or how you acted while I was around. Hell I wouldn't have even told you if I wasn't bounded to Konoe here. However, since until the terms of the pact are fulfilled I need to be by her side. There by I'm going to have to stay with you... This means getting along with you all, and that means making an understanding between us." Ran told them without any compunction.

"How can you say something like that so coldly?" Asuna bristled while jumping to her feet.

Ran was about to reply in a scornful way when Konoe cut him off. "It's okay Asuna. It's my fault that things are like this. He would have been fine if I hadn't chased him like I did. Come on Ran-kun, I'll take you somewhere so that you can sleep."

"As Ma' Lady wishes." Ran said automatically, causing Konoe to wince and look sad as she lead him away.

As she walked, Konoe took out the Pacto card she had gotten from when she kissed Ran. If showed her in a beautiful white gown while holding two fans. 'One slave made to order.' Those words echoed in her head as she walked away. 'That's right, I stole his freedom with that kiss.' Konoe thought while she walked towards the room she was sharing with other girls. 'I don't hate you Konoe. It wasn't your fault that this happened. I'm more angry at that baka ermine, but I don't hate anyone here.' Ran's soft words came back to her, 'How can he say that, because of my foolishness I stole away his freedom and will. I hear it every time he says "Ma' Lady." As she walked, she got more and more depressed. 'And then there's that other half of him, Ranma. He's human and locked in this deal too. 'So in fact I stole away two people's freedom in one kiss. What kind of horrible person am I?'

"You aren't a horrible person, Konoe-chan. Neither Ranma nor I think so. It was an accident, had I not run you wouldn't have followed, had I not turned down that hallway you wouldn't have caught me, had the baka ermine not put up the spell you none of this would have mattered. There are too many variables to really say that any ONE person is at fault." Ran said while he walked behind her.

"H-H-How d-d-did you know what I was thinking?" Konoe said in shock whirling around to look at him.

"You're holding our pact card. It works like a commutation device so that I'm never out of contact with you. All you have to do is hold it and think, I'll hear whatever you are thinking. Same goes with me, if I lay a hand on my card." Ran stopped and pulled out his card. 'Anything I think will be heard by you.' Ran thought as he watched Konoe's face light up in awe as she saw him stop talking but still heard him.

"This also means you can hear me." Ranma piped in from inside the mind.

Konoe's eyes grew even larger when she heard a different voice from Ran. 'Are you Ranma?'

"Yep, that would be me." Ranma said with his cocky voice.

'Don't go letting that someone can hear you go to your head baka, you're not that great as a disembodied voice.' Ran thought while metaphorically rolling his eyes. This caused Konoe to giggle while she heard the two argue over such an abstract thought.

Releasing his hold on the card Ran looked at Konoe. "Ma' Lady I think it would be best that we return you to bed now, as you still have much to do tomorrow." Konoe sighed and nodded while walking to her room.

Once she got there, she held the door for Ran, however he didn't enter. "Aren't you going to come in?"

Ran raised an eyebrow. "You do realize that you are trying to invite a boy into a room filled with girls to spend the night." Konoe's eyes widened and she blushed; now it was Ran's turn to chuckle "I'll sleep elsewhere. I did rent a room in the hotel after all."

Konoe sighed, then smiled and bowed to him. "Good night then Ran-kun. Good night Ranma."

"Good night Konoe-san." Ran said while he bowed in return. As soon as she closed the door, Ran started to his room. 'Well this is an interesting development.' Ran thought as he walked the halls.

"No kidding, I can't wait to sleep in that bed." Ranma said.

'Sorry Ranma but that's going to have to be postponed until another day.' Ran countered. 'We are only going to clean out our stuff then heading back to her room.'

Ranma blushed "You mean we are going to sleep in her room after all?"

'No baka, we are sleeping outside her door to insure her safety. But I want you to bring our sword and Athema to do that, as well as our clothing.' Ran said

"OH, okay. It sucks that we didn't get to sleep in the bed we paid for though." Ranma said as he calmed down.

'Yes well it can't be helped. Such is the curse of the pact. Now we are pretty much nothing more then a bodyguard for that girl until we find out what her truest desires were when she kissed us. Then when we fulfill it we are free.' Ran said.

The next morning.

Konoe exited her room and gasped as she saw Ran using a sword to prop up his body as he slightly snored. Kneeling down she lightly tapped his shoulder. He startled awake and jumped to his feet sword at the ready instantly. Hearing a gasp to his side, he looked down to see Konoe lying on the ground rubbing her butts. "Oops sorry Konoe-chan. You startled me." said the boy.

Looking up Konoe locked eyes with the most passionate set of aqua blue eyes she'd ever seen. Her breath froze in her throat as the boy held out his hand to help her up. Looking up she saw that his hair was bright red bangs and the rest of his hair was jet black, and tied in a low ponytail. "You're not Ran are you?"

The boy gave her a confident smirk as he still held out his hand to help her. "You catch out quick Konoe-chan. No, I'm Ranma, Ran's still asleep. Now come on lets get you up off the floor."

Konoe smiled as this boy seemed much happier then his demon half, he had an almost carefree air around him. Reaching her hand up she touched his hand and gasped as he pulled her to her feet. She could 'feel' the confidence rolling off him when she touched his hand. 'What was that?'

"Are you okay Konoe-san?" Ranma asked when he saw her staring at his hand.

Shaking off the feeling, she smiled up at him. "I'm fine, it's nothing. Why were you sleeping outside my room though Ranma-kun?"

"Err about that. It was my turn to watch the door and I fell asleep." Ranma said nervously.

"Your turn? You mean you and Ran watched my door all night long?" Konoe asked in shock.

"Um, ya." Ranma said confused at why she was surprised by it.

"Didn't you two go and sleep in your room. Ran said that you were going to." Konoe said half way between disbelief and anger.

"Err no he said and I quote 'I'll sleep elsewhere, I did rent a room in the hotel after all.' He didn't say where he'd be sleeping, or where I'd be sleeping." Ranma said nervously, expecting to get hit when he heard the anger in her voice.

"OOOOOHHHH! That sneaky devil. I'll have to have a talking with him when he wakes up." Konoe said with a humph. "Anyways now that you're awake go take a bath while I changed. I'll meet you in the lobby so we can get breakfast."

"Yes Ma'am" Ranma said with a salute and a cocky smile. Then disappeared down the hall at top speed, food being his ultimate motivator. Konoe giggled at his disappearing act before re-entering her room.

5 minutes later, she exited the room in a long sleeved shirt, knee length skirt, and boots. Only to bump into a still dripping wet Ranma. Blinking she looked at him "Wha?"

"Wow that took you along time. Anyways let's eat." Ranma said while starting to head down the hall.

"But how did you… you couldn't have.. Huh?" Konoe asked in confusion that he beat her when she had only taken five minutes to get dressed.

"Come on you're wasting precise time that could be better spent eating." Ranma said before turning around and scooping her into his arms and taking off running down the hall. In less then 30 seconds he was already in the lobby setting her on her feet. "So were to the food?"

Shaking off the sudden movement speed then stop as best she could Konoe slowly started to stagger towards where breakfast was being served. "How did you manage to bath and make it back to my room that quickly?" She asked after sitting at a table with Ranma.

"You said the magic word." Ranma said with a smirk, when he saw Konoe give him a confused look he pointed a chopstick at his plates of food. "Food." This caused her to snicker however by the time she was done giggling he was done his whole tray of food.

"Wow. That was amazing how'd you making all the food disappear?" Konoe asked.

Ranma just blinked. "I ate it. How else does food disappear?"

"But I didn't even see you move." Konoe said in awe.

"You blink you miss it." Ranma said with his normal cocky look. This trick was repeated 5 times and she missed everyone except for a blur of moment on the last tray.

Shaking off the oddness of it, she took Ranma's hand and led him through the halls to where he said Setsuna was. Once she came into view, they both became witness to Asuna calling forth her magic cancelling fan by the activation word. "ADEAT!"

Konoe stared in awe while Ranma looked over to another hall and smirked as he saw another girl staring at the show. "Man this kid really sucks at hiding his magic from people."

"Excuse me Ranma-san?" Konoe asked not understanding what he meant. Ranma merely pointed to the other hall. "Nodoka-chan?"

Ranma blinked at that one. "Nodoka? Creepy." Once again, Konoe looked at him confused. "Nodoka is my mother's name." Konoe 'oh'd' and nodded remembering the story Ran had told them the night before.

'Alright I promised myself I'd have a good time with Ran and Ranma today to start making up for doing this to them.' with that thought in mind she latched onto Ranma's arm and started dragging him towards Setsuna and the others. "Se-chan!" she called out getting the girls attention. When everyone looked over, they saw a blushing Ranma being dragged by Konoe.

"Good morning Konoka-san, Ran-san." Negi said while bowing. Everyone else bowed and repeated the greeting in their own way.

"Um I'm not Ran." Ranma said regaining his footing after Konoe stopped dragging him. "I'm his human half Ranma. Ran's still sleeping."

Everyone looked up at him; Setsuna was the first to notice the differences. As subtle as they were, the blue eyes, calmer carefree aura, tied back hair. "Good morning then Saotome-san."

Ranma waved her off. "Ranma's fine Sakurazaki-san."

"Then please call me Setsuna." She responded in kind until she heard Ranma start to snicker. "Is something funny?" She was forced to blink when a red ring appeared around the iris of his eye.

"Not really, Ran just woke up with another of his weird comments." Ranma said, while leaning in to her and whispering in her ear, "Demons know demons, can we call you crow-chan?" Ranma then leaned back and continued to chuckles while stepping behind Konoe putting a finger to his lips and winking.

Setsuna paled and stared at him. 'How'd he know? What was that about demons knowing demons?'

Ranma sighed at how worried she looked "Ah damn woman you have no sense of humor come here." Ranma said while waving her to walk with him, which she did stiffly. Once in the corner Ranma covered her mouth before she could speak and spoke quietly to her first. "For starters relax we aren't going to tell on you. Remember we both have demon in us. Mine just has a voice of his own, where's yours doesn't. Next Ran just wanted to let you know that we knew what you were, we won't cause you trouble, otherwise we would have said it out loud the moment we saw you." Ranma smiled a little when she visibly relaxed. "That and you're cute hurting you would ruin any chances we had of getting to know you better." He said with a wink and walked away from the blushing girl.

Once he returned to the others Konoe grabbed his arm and dragged him off again.

Later that day

Ranma stifled a yawn as she leaned against a wall in the arcade. "You're still tired?" Setsuna asked as she was leaning next to him.

"Sorry I didn't sleep that great leaning against a wall. " Ranma said as he shifted his weight trying to get comfortable, and closing his eyes. "At least she looks happier now then she did last night." He said while nodding towards Konoe.

"Yes she's been more and more happy since she started at Mahora Academy. She's also had a lot more friends there. I'm very happy for her." Setsuna said with a smile.

"You shouldn't do what you're planning then." Ranma said while keeping his eyes closed.

"What are you talking about?" Setsuna asked getting nervous around the boy. 'What is with this boy, how does he know so much?'

"You are talking like you're about to force yourself into a position were you're going to be unhappy you resigned yourself to it with vindication. If you always put yourself in a position of misery for honour then you'll lead yourself down a self-destructive path which will cause you to lose your edge in the fights were it's most important. Take it from someone that's been there, happiness now leads to straight later, because if you remember what it's in it for you, not just who you want to protect, you'll fight harder longer and better when you need it." Ranma said in unexpected insight to anyone who knew him in Nerima.

The fact that Ranma had said all this with his eyes closed and looking like he wanted nothing more then to take a nap put Setsuna off balance. "I'm going to check on Negi-sensei."

"'k tell the brat to watch his back." Ranma said offhand. Ranma cracked an eye as he watched Setsuna wander off. He watched Konoe for a while until he felt something he hadn't expected to feel. Following the lines of Ki and mana in the area, he stood up and approached Konoe. Forcing a smile to his face, he approached her. "Hey Konoe could you get Setsuna-san, she doesn't look like she's having much fun all spaced out like that."

"Oh Se-chan's upset?" Konoe asked worried.

"No not upset as much as spaced out like she's got too much on her mind. You really should just get her to play around more so she smiles more often." Ranma corrected.

"What about you?" Konoe getting confused on who to comfort.

Ranma smiled while Ran started to pinpoint the power source. "Don't worry about me; I'll meet up with you again later. If you get in trouble just grab the pact card and yell both my names, we'll be summoned to your side. But make sure that I'm needed as it can only be used once a day." With that, Ranma did something that most forgot he could do, he made himself invisible.

'Where is he Ran?' Ranma asked mentally as he rushed off to find the mage that he could feel around with malice intent directed towards his new ward.

"He's north by north west of here." Ran said as he focused in on the energies. "Watch yourself around him Ranma; he has a strong magical aura surrounding himself. He's going to be strong, and have heavy magic attacks to back him up."

Half an hour later. In Cinema Town.

"We're going to support their love with all our might!"

"ALL YOU PUNKS! WE'RE GOING TO BE THEIR SUPPORT!"

"Waah! W… Wait, you've got it all wrong everyone!" Setsuna yelled trying to fix everyone's misunderstanding.

"Alright! How many enemies are we dealing with? Just leave it to us Sakurazaki-san!"

"You don't understand! I'll be ok, so please stop this."

Ranma kept himself invisible while Ran erased all the energy emanations while they approached their target. Both wanted to laugh at the scene before them but held it in as Ran felt the spell being cast on Konoe by the white hair boy before them. Summoning the black lightning punch once more Ranma dropped his Umi Sen-ken and both drilled the white hair boy throw the wall and into the street breaking the spell he was effecting Konoe with via a magic breaking seal that Ran had cast at the moment of contact with the boy. "Doing that to Konoe-sama is a no, no in my booked child." Ranma said while he stepping out of the hole in the wall. "You best to remember that."

Standing up the boy looked at Ranma with fully opened eyes as he wiped his mouth of the blood that was seeping from it. "That was an impressive punch, as well as the ability to sneak up so close to me without me realizing you were there." The white haired boy said as he started to gather magic around him.

"Ah, ah Emo-whitey-chan, if you're going to go about doing something like that lets take this elsewhere first." Ranma said while pointing off to another area of the city. "I mean I'm all for big ass fights but lets not get everyone involve otherwise you'll piss of my demon more then he already is."

The white haired boy pulled his hair out and looked at it for a second while mouthing the words 'Emo-whitey-chan?' to himself. Totally confused by the insulting nickname Ranma had given him. So it was understandable that he became shocked enough to take a step back when Ranma appeared in front of his face and flicked his nose. Not being prepared for such speed and skill, the white haired boy quickly started to attack while using magic power to accelerate his attack speed.

Ranma too used Ran's power to speed up his movements and attack power, however he couldn't go all out and was trying to lead the fight to somewhere where innocent's wouldn't be hurt. "Ranma don't toy with this guy our we'll get hurt damnit!"

'It can't be helped Ran I don't want innocent to get involved.' Ranma thought while fending off attacks and magical stone spears that they boy kept throwing at them.

'Who is the Boy, he's stronger and faster then anyone I've ever met.' The white hair boy thought as he kept the attacks up. He was being forced back and knew that his opponent wasn't going all out as since he was being lead away from the populous. 'He's fending off attacks while leading me away from the people around here. What kind of monster is this boy?' It unnerved him that someone like Ranma could exist and him know nothing about him.

"DEMON STORM FIST!" Ranma called as he covered his fists in black lightning and started to attack Emo-whitey with Ran's improved chestnut fist attack. Both knew how to use the attacks but were only about half as effective as if the creator used them. Just as Ranma ended the attack, he spun around and released his improved Chestnut fist on the incoming projectiles "TIGER CLAW BARRAGE!" The chi blasts detonated the stone spears into dust with each hit. Ranma's cocky smirk appeared on his face as he turned to face the boy again only to experience a new level of pain. 'Shit, I got to cocky.' he thought while looking down at the three stone spears the completely penetrated his body.

The white haired boy blow out a breath, as sweat dripped from his brow. He'd won, if only barely "You are quite impressive, but you still lost. This is the price you pay for interfering with my work."

Ranma growled while falling to his knees 'Ran I'm sorry, please beat this guy for me.'

"Rest assured Ranma, but you're going to hurt like hell when you wake up." Ran said as he triggered the transformation. His hair came undone, silver streaked through it, as his eyes turned blood red again, and fangs appeared in his mouth. "Boy did you make a mistake Emo-whitey baka." Ran said as midnight black energy converged on Ran's form.

Acting as quickly as he could whitey fired a thousand stone spears at Ran intent on turning in to pulp. However, it was already to late, black lightning exploded from his body destroying all the projectiles, including the ones sticking out of him. "I told you, you made a mistake. Ranma warned you before not to piss off his demon, but you went and pissed me off anyways." Ran said in a hunting voice.

"Who are you?"

"I am Demon Lord Ran Hilta and you are DEAD!" Ran yelled. "CHAOS CANNON!" Ran yelled out as his hand flew forwards and released a beam of fire encircled with black lightning that lanced towards the boy. It had just touched him, shattering his magical barrier on contact, as well as burning him severely before he managed to teleport out in time to live.

Ran snorted, "Coward," he muttered just as Setsuna, Konoe, and the others came around the corner to see him bleeding severely and from the half closed holes in his body. Ran turned to them and gave them a weak grin before he fell to the ground face first from blood loss. "I am a demon lord, I never lose." Ran then blacked out.

Elsewhere in Kyoto

Kasumi stood with Shampoo and Hotaru. All of them were staring in awe at what was left of the tournament area. "Oh my!" was the only thing that she could say.

"AYHA! Airen really need to pull punches." Shampoo added.

"Ran-sempai did all this?" Hotaru gasped. She got a little worried about what had happened, as she'd seen him fight with the two masters in Nerima and didn't even touch the amount of damage this place had. The main arena was suppose to be made out of cement slabs however it looked more like gravel then anything now. All the grass was ripped up by trances that were dug by flying bodies, as you could see the final imprint at the end. Walla made to protect the spectators had been tore to the ground. "What happened?"

"I can answer that." Someone said as that same one that just spoke approached the three. Turning around they came eye to eye with a tall well-endowed blonde woman.

"Who you?" Shampoo asked, feeling slightly undermined by the size of the women's assesses.

"My name is Rangiku Matsumoto. I was sent to watch the person that did all this." Matsumoto said as she gave them a slight bow. Which they bowed in return and introduced themselves back.

"You said you were sent to watch Ran-sempai?" Hotaru asked when the all moved to another area so they could sit down.

"Yes, however I lost track of him after this tournament." Rangiku said as she shook her head. "I was nervous about following him after watching him do this. By the time I got myself together he was gone and I can't find him anymore."

"What happened?" Kasumi asked also a little nervously, 'what could have happened to make Ranma go off like this?'

"It happened after the tournament…"

Flashback.

Ranma smiled as he waved to the crowd and collected his winnings. 'Well that was fairly simple'

"Yes, and you even managed to not cause any collateral damage this time." Ran said snidely and with humour as they walked into the contestants changing area.

'Oh ha ha, jerk.' Ranma remarked half-heartedly. Just as he was about to enter into the shower area to get undressed he was surrounded by tough looking thugs. "What can I do for you?" Ranma asked trying to remain civil.

Matsumoto watched closely at this point.

The lead thug stepped forward, as he'd been in the tournament and got his ass handed to him by Ranma. "You can give us them money that's rightfully ours."

Ranma cocked his head sideways at this. "The only money I got is what I won. And you can't have that since I need it to eat, you could try to take it, and have me beat you again."

The thug sneered at him. "I know who you really are, Ranma Saotome. And if you don't want you little friends back in Nerima hurt you'll hand over the money." Ranma was about to snort about any of these guys hurting the people in Nerima, until they showed him pictures of him talking with Kasumi.

Instantly his demeanor changed. 'Sorry Ran looks like there's going to be property damage after all.' Ranma thought as he growled.

"Don't bother holding back on these guys." Ran said while he too was ready to start to writing there names in the grim reapers book of names.

"Or we can go with plan C boys." Ranma said in a cold voice. "I kill you all before you can touch any one else." As soon as the last work left Ranma's mouth, he exploded into action, kicking the lead thug through the wall into the arena center. The others soon followed some running others being thrown, however none escaped the enraged Ranma.

End flash back.

Everyone stared at the picture of Ranma thanking Kasumi for the bento she had carried to him while he was at school, having not grabbed it on his way out, two weeks before he left. "None of them died, but they'll be in the hospital for along time. This was the picture they showed him. I assume this is you?" Rangiku asked to Kasumi.

"Yes that was two weeks before he left Nerima; he had forgotten his lunch at home so I decide to take it to him." Kasumi said as she looked at the picture. "My, Nabiki is getting very good to get such a shot without us noticing."

Shampoo blinked. "You know that mercenary sister do this?"

Kasumi smiled at Shampoo "Of course, very little goes on that I don't know about. Besides how do you think the dojo stays open with all the damage that has been done to it?" Shampoo blinked, as she had never realized. "Daddy never teaches so Nabiki had to keep us in the black. Most of what she makes goes to doing just that, the rest goes into rebuilding hers' and Akane's college funds that Daddy wasted on Sake." Kasumi said with a disapproving look.

Shampoo nodded in understanding, as she knew what Soun was like, however Hotaru could only look with a bit of horror that a parent would do that to there child. Then a thought struck Hotaru. "Um, nee-san?"

"Yes Hotaru-chan?" Kasumi asked.

"Doesn't this mean that Ran-sempai destroyed this place because they threatened you?" Kasumi blushed bright crimson as the realization sunk in.

"Oh my."

To be continued.

Yep, demon lords don't lose, they just black out from blood lose after they get the shit kicked out of them. Hehe. I know that this is a little odd that Ranma got beat by someone like that kid but I wanted to make it so that Ranma loses some of his ego that he got with Ran boosting his powers so much. Moreover, help drive home the fact that Ranma isn't invincible even in a fic like this, 'cause that would be boring. And well everyone knows that you need some trouble to make things easier on me for keeping the story going.

But I could have Ran lose a fight to a simple mage that wasn't expecting him, so out comes the Demon Lord level attacks. The Chaos Cannon is one of their top level attacks. If Both Ran and Ranma use it when in top shape it could pretty well take out a good size chuck out of Tokyo. It uses both Magic, Ki & demon energy to use, which makes it all the more dangerous as Ran/Ranma get stronger.

I hope this fight was better then the Arrancar fight. I think I might add a Shadow and crew appearance in the next Chapter at some point. See ya.


	10. Chapter 9

-1

Shadow's of the heart.

Chapter 9

A/N: Okay, Konoka is going to a little OOC for a bit, but try to look at it like this. One, she's a 14 year old girl that just found out that not only did she steal away two peoples freedom but because of her they were almost killed (in her mind.) So she feels really guilty about it. Also, throw in the law of Ranma (IE. Any woman that comes in contact with Ranma will never be the same.) and you have one OOC Konoka. I hope everyone is okay with it, 'cause personally I think it's funny.

I'm not evil, I just don't like you.

Ran slowly opened his eyes, and groaned at the sight that greeted him. "Hello Brat." he muttered before closing his eyes again.

"Oh thank goodness you're awake Ran-san," Negi said as he leaned back out of Ran's way so the older boy could sit. "We were afraid you weren't going to make it. You lost a lot of blood."

"That would explain the headache." Ran grumbled as he started to get to his feet.

"WAIT! Where are you going?!" Negi yelled starting to flip out that Ran was getting out of bed so soon.

"The bathroom brat. I just woke up where the hell else would I go?"

"But you shouldn't be standing. You're still really pale, and weak you need to rest."

"Kid, I need to take a leak, and unless you know a spell so I can piss lying down, I'm going." Ran said in a tired voice while he staggered towards the door. However, as the door flew open he was instantly standing up straight as if not tired at all, walking without a stumble in his step although it was walking slowly, and had a smile on his face, if it was strained. "Good day, Ma' Lady Konoe"

"OH THANK GOD!" Konoka screamed as she lunged from the door into Ran's arms, causing him to fall to the floor. Ran winced as he hit the floor in pain. "I thought you were going to die. DON'T YOU EVER DO THAT TO ME AGAIN!" She yelled as tears flew from her eyes, as she attempted to crush him to death.

Ran blinked as he attempted to get the girl off his chest so he could breath. "Ma' lady… I… need. wheeze air…" As the girl stubbornly clung to him. Finally getting her to release enough of her grip that he could breathe but she refused to leave his chest. Ran watched the crying girl on his chest in confusing. "Ok, what the hell happened? I know you weren't like this when I passed out. Someone want to fill me in? Or at least help me to the washroom?" Setsuna chuckled while she and Negi finally peeled Konoka off Ran's chest and he rushed to the washroom.

Of course, the moment he returned he ended up on the floor again with a tearful Konoka on top of him. "OK, this REALLY needs explaining now. That's the second time I've ended up on my ass, and the floor is not soft."

"Ojou-sama, is afraid that if she let's you go again you'll get hurt again. She says that it's her fault." Setsuna said from her place on the floor.

"Now that's not t…"

"We heard you. We all heard you tell that boy off for casting that spell on me." Konoka cried from his chest. "You fought him about me, and almost dead because of it." Everyone looked at her sadly as she cried more, except Ran, who just slapped his forehead for allowing Ranma to say that.

"Konoe-sama you must realize that we had only wanted to protect you. What happened was an accident. We won therefore there's no problem, right?" Ran said as he tried to figure out how he was supposed to calm her down. 'Dark Gods this blows. How are we going to calm her down, she's acting as if she likes us or something.'

"Oh nicely done Ran, you got another girl liking us." Ranma said from inside his head.

'Shut it Ranma.' Ran thought while he slowly hugged Konoka to him rocking her back and forth to calm her down. "So, where are we?" Ran asked the others causing them to chuckle.

"This is Ojou-sama's family home. It's were she grew up before she attended Mahora Academy." Setsuna said filling him in on that was going on, until the door burst open again and guards rushed into the room and aimed there weapons at Ran, and Konoka as she was still in his arms.

"Release my daughter monster." A tall man said as he stepped to the front of the group.

"Sorry pops you got it wrong, I'm a demon not a monster." Ran idly corrected while raising his arms off Konoka, who whimpered that the support was gone. "Sorry, Konoka-sama but you have to get off of my chest so your dad can stab me now."

Konoka's eyes shot open as she latched on to his chest harder. "NO!!"

"GAH!!" Ran cried out as he once again lost his ability to breath "Help, can't… breath" Konoka's father, along with all the guards got sweat drops, while he watched his daughter squeezes the life out of the demon that he'd come to kill, all the while she was screaming about never losing him again.

5 minutes later, Ran was standing now and catching his breath, while Konoka was attached to his arm. "What is going on here?" the elderly Konoe asked while he looked at the two.

"That's what I was hoping to figure out; I get a little beat up in a fight and wake up to her attaching herself to me." Ran said while he looked down at her.

"Wait, you were the one from Cinema Town? But the boy that was brought here was human." Konoe-san asked.

"And if you look inside my aura, you'll see this body IS human. As well, there's a second spirit inside me that is human to he's just to tired to come out. Besides, no human can learn to do the Chaos Cannon attack without some sort of demon energy." Ran said while still trying to slip out of Konoka's grip.

Konoe-san watched Ran's movements while the self-proclaimed demon tried to escape his daughter so gently that is almost seem he had feelings for her. "WOULD SOMEONE HELP ME PLEASE?!" Ran cried out. The others just laughed while Konoka had moved back to clinging to his chest. "Okay, LOOK why are you so clingy now?"

"You were hurt fighting for me after you left me, I'm never letting you or Setsuna leave my side again." Konoka stated with determination.

Ran blinked when he heard her. "Lovely thought, but what about when we sleep or bath? I can see you keeping Setsuna with you, but I'm a guy. You'll have to let me walk around alone then."

Konoka scrunched up her nose, and blushed a little before concentrating. "No, you'll sleep beside me from now on. And I'll take mixed baths; I'll just take a towel." Every ones eyes went wide open and stared at her for that, even Ran's.

"HUH!"

"You heard me." Konoka said.

"Ok, who are you and what happened to our Konoka?" Ran said while looking down at her. 'This better not be because of the card.'

Konoka sniffed a little. "If this is what it takes to make sure you two are safe then I'll do what ever it takes. I don't want either of you hurt because of me."

"AAAH!" Everyone said as one as they realized what she was thinking.

"It's okay we aren't going to be hurt Ma' lady, you don't have to worry s…OUCH!" Ran was cut off and complained when Konoka pointed one of the still healing holes on his chest. "That was low. It wasn't me that got stabbed."

"I don't care. You're sleeping with me and Setsuna." Konoka said, to which Setsuna blushed, Konoka's father glared and Ran snickered. It took a few seconds for Konoka to realize how that sounded and she blushed as well, but ignoring it, she took both peoples hands and dragged them off to her room.

Ran tried fighting the movements "Don't you have something to say about this?! You're her father." Ran called to the elder Konoe.

"I would if I could control her, but she's too much like her mother." He replied.

"So?" Ran asked, as he now had his fingers imprinted in the doorframe.

"So, she'd give me the evil eye if I said no, to her. I'm scared of it." He answered. While watching Ran's fingers slip from the doorframe and he disappears into the halls of the house.

"Help?" was softly heard from the hallways.

Ran sighed as he relented slightly to her pull, as he was still in bad shape from healing the holes in his chest; it had taken a lot of energy to heal himself. "Ok, so I'm sleeping in your room now?" Ran asked hoping at least to have some room.

"Is my room BESIDE ME?" Konoka asked with a glare.

"Yes?" Ran asked hopefully.

"NO! You BOTH sleeping beside me. My bed's big enough, it's a king sized." Konoka answered harshly.

Setsuna and Ran's eyes widened again. "You're joking!" they said as one.

"No I'm not." 'I will not let them hurt you again.'

"Konoka-sama…" Ran tried.

"THAT'S AN ORDER!" Konoka yelled.

"Shit." Ran whispered as both Setsuna and he took a step back. "I see why her father's scared now." Setsuna nodded. "Any thoughts?"

"Who's sleeping in the middle?" Setsuna whispered back.

"You're a lot of help." Ran shot back sarcastically.

"You want to disobey her?"

"I'm not allowed."

"Either am I."

"This is going to become bad later." Ran said as he realized that unless he found a release he was going to be sleeping next to this girl for the rest of their lives, and since he was on his way to immortality.

"Come on you two, Ran needs to rest." Konoka said as she started to drag them away again. Suddenly Ran stopped in his tracks and narrowed his eyes. "What is it now?"

"We're being watched." Ran said as he started to scan the trees. "It's him again."

"WHAT?!" Konoka yelled.

"Where?" Setsuna asked as she fell into a stance gripping her sword.

"In the trees just outside the wall." Ran answered as he pulled out his card. "Time to see what this thing does. ADEAT!" Ran said as he gripped the card. In a flash of Light, he separated into two different people, in matching clothes. Ran's hair became silver with red streaks in it while Ranma had jet black with red streaks. Both had their gauntlets and swords, and looked to be back in there 18 year old bodies, and Ran had his wings out. "Ranma take the left side."

"Got it." He said while jumping to the left while Ran lifted off and took to the right. Searching the trees for there prey, who now knew they were seen and took off running.

"They're getting away!" Ran yelled to Ranma, as they were about to give chase.

"GET BACK HERE!" Konoka yelled to the two.

"But…" Ranma tried only to be cut off.

"NOW, BOTH OF YOU!" She yelled.

Dropping there heads they released the cards magic "Abeat." They said becoming one again as returned to Konoka, who was glaring at them. "Ma' lady?"

"Your hurt and need to rest. NOW!" Konoka said angrily.

Both Setsuna and Ran only had one thought about the look she was giving them. 'Scary.'

Outside the Hotel that the Mahora Academy class was staying.

Kasumi's group was now moving around Kyoto totally at a loss with what to do. "Kasumi-neesan where are you going to look for Ran-senpai?" Hotaru asked as she followed the elder girl closely.

"I'm really not sure Hotaru-chan. I was hoping he'd still be close by the tournament grounds. However´, with how he's been moving he could already be on his way out of Kyoto." Kasumi said sadly. This trip was starting to become harder then she had expected.

"Big chested blonde lady say Airen still in city, just hard to find." Shampoo said as she too was a little crestfallen about the having no leads to work with.

"Regardless, we can't do anymore searching tonight, it's late. Let's just get a hotel room here and talk about it in the morning." Kasumi said deciding that she'd had enough of walking. The other's nodded and followed her into the hotel, in which they got a single room to share. Which as luck (read: author) would have was the room right across from where Ran/Ranma had been staying.

Rangiku's hotel room.

"Yes captain, I am aware of the importance of this mission, but I can't get a fix on his location. Nor am I able to find him by looking. It's as if he's disappeared completely if it weren't for his spiritual energy I would say that he isn't even here anymore." Rangiku said as she held the cell phone, she was NOT having a good day. 'Agh, This kid is SOO annoying. If I ever find him I'm going to choke the life out of him.'

"Yes sir I'll report in again as soon as I find him." 'If I find him' She added mentally. Closing her cell phone again she sighed, with his first reaction to her the higher ups though Ran would be more open to letting her into his group so that she could follow him and report on what he was doing. Maybe even convince him to work for them, however with him moving around so quickly and always seeming to be aware that he was being follow she was left in the dust whenever she thought she was getting close. Add that to the fact that now she seemed to be unable to even find a trace of him, she was in an extremely bad mood.

Shelving the thoughts for later Rangiku laid down on her bed to get some rest. 'What a guy. I wonder why he always makes me so angry when I think he's avoiding me?' Shaking her head again, she closed her eyes. 'Need to sleep I'll be looking for him again first thing in the morning.'

With Ran

"No." Ran said as he looked at the two girls in front of him.

"Yes." Konoka said sternly

"Not if you're wearing that, no way." He argued. What was he arguing about? Both Konoka and Setsuna were in small white teddies, and neither Ran nor Ranma where going to sleep in they same bed as them if they were going to be where those and nothing else.

"Is there something wrong with our PJ's?" Setsuna asked slightly confused

"Not if you're intending to seduce your boyfriends no." Ran said, causing both girls to blush. "But to sleep with me? Yeah there's a lot wrong with them, unless you're aiming at not sleeping. Then again, I answer NO! To soon, don't know you well enough, and already have enough girls after my tail. Now if you're wearing those I'll sleep in that chair over there." Ran said pointing at a wooden chair in the corner of the room.

"Set-chan?" Konoka asked, as soon as the other girl looked, she pointed to Ran's left hand. "On three."

"Three what?" Ran asked as he looked back.

"Three!" Konoka yelled happily, as both her and Setsuna jumped Ran before he could react. Grabbing both his hands the pulled him into the bed before he could react. Still holding one of his hands, she and Setsuna both crawled under three layers of blankets. "There, now we're both under three layers, you sleep with a layer or two between us and there's no problems right? And you can't see our PJs"

Ran grumbled but nodded reluctantly "Fine but no… to late." he muttered as Konoka cuddled into his arm. Looking over Setsuna was looking the other way going to sleep as well. With a sigh, Ran slowly stared at the ceiling wondering what he was going to do.

After about 15 minutes, he started to hear whimpering coming from beside him, first, he checked Konoka but she seemed fine, she even had a small smile playing across her lips. Blinking it off, as he really didn't want to know what that girl was thinking up now. He looked over to Setsuna, the girl was shaking a little as if she has a cold and he could hear her starting to cry in her sleep. 'Nightmares? Must have had a hard life.' with a sigh Ran slowly reached over and lightly rolled the girl into his side, being sure she wouldn't wake up as he did it. Disentangling his other arm from Konoka he hugged both of them to him protectively and wanted to cry out at the injustice of him caring about other while being a demon. 'DAMN YOU RANMA THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!' He screamed in their head.

"Shut up and go to sleep Ran." Was Ranma's only reply.

Juuban

"Hotaru, Oh thank God. Where have you been you had us so worried." Michiru cried into the phone. "Where are you? We'll come get you… WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE NOT COMING HOME?!"

"Michiru-mama calm down, please. I am coming home just not yet." Hotaru said from the other end of the phone.

"Why not? And where are you? Neither Setsuna or I could find you." Michiru asked still really upset.

"I'm with Kasumi-neechan we've been following Ran-senpai. We are in Kyoto at the moment." Hotaru said then winced and pulled the phone from her ear when Michiru screamed "KYOTO!!!" A second or two after the scream Hotaru slowly returned the phone to her ear. "Yes we are in Kyoto."

"Who's with you? Who is this Kasumi person? Put her on the phone." Michiru said halfway between worried and angry.

Hotaru shrugged and passed the phone over to Kasumi. "Hello, this is Kasumi Tendo." Kasumi said in the sweetest voice she could muster. "Yes… No… Oh my no… Yes she's fine, we've been doing just fine I'm sorry to have worried you." Kasumi continued like this trying her hardest to calm the panicked mother. It was just BARELY do able.

10 minutes in Shampoo burst into the room with a huge smile on her face. In her hand, a newspaper with an article circled in red marker. The paper was from a High School but what catch Kasumi's attention, and earlier Shampoo's was the words 'Martial arts tournament, Prize 10,000,000 yen.' "We'll have Hotaru home in two days." Kasumi said as she reached for the paper and dropped the phone. Hotaru picked up the phone and started talking to Michiru again.

"Shampoo saw and thought about what Too Too nice girl say before. Maybe Airen back track and get more money, this prize much bigger, then one here. If Airen need money to travel he would need bigger matches." Shampoo said as Kasumi read the article.

"This says all contestants need to be from the school, and it's not for a couple of month. BUT.. that would give Ranma the time he'd need to get enrolled in the school so he could take part." Kasumi said thinking out loud. "We'll have to go there and find out, besides I just promised Hotaru's mother to take her home. Nice thinking Shampoo, Tomorrow we leave for Mahora Academy."

Midnight with Ran.

Ran awoke when he felt an intense spell starting to be cast towards him. Jump to his feet, carrying the two girls with him, and out of there slumber he landed and glared at their assailant "Well well, if it isn't Emo-whitey-chan again. What is it? Want another taste of my chaos cannon?" Ran said as he shifted the girls behind him.

"What are you doing here?" The boy replied narrowing his eyes at Ran. 'He's completely healed. Only red marks are left of wounds, meaning, he healed them himself not through magic.'

"I was sleeping with two beautiful women, what the hell do you THINK I'm doing here?" Ran asked snidely causing the white haired boy to blush. "What the hell are you doing here, and why interrupting my fun?"

"Err I'm kidnapping the princess." The boy replied, being off balance from Ran's blatant answers, and off the wall attitude. That and that Ran was in bed with two girls in teddies, the fact that Ran was still dressed was lost on him in because of the way Ran had answered him.

"Kid put yourself in my position; do you think I'm going to let you take one of these girls?" Ran said while kicking his sword off the ground and into his hands.

Calming himself down Whitey looked at Ran dead in the eye he spoke a single word. "Fate"

"Ran" Ran replied as both took up fighting stances. This time Fate was completely into the fight knowing should he slack even a little he'd die, Ran on the other have was pissed off over many things and this kid unexpectedly volunteered to become his stress relief. 'Not up to 100 yet but I'm still in good enough shape to work off some steam.' in a fast motion both fighters released there first attacks. Fate shot out stone spears, while Ran destroyed them simply with the drawing of his sword. "Setsuna protect Konoka, I'll deal with this guy." Ran yelled without looking back.

"You're weakened from earlier." Fate said while dodging Ran's seeming random attacks.

"You're not fully healed yet either." Ran said while continuing to attack with sword strikes.

"I was completely recovered with magic." Fate said while launching more stone spears throughout the hallway they were in.

"Guess that magic messed up your head then, otherwise you would have noticed I lead you outside." Ran said doing a one handed sweep of with his sword to destroy the spears and using the other to fire a Ki blast straight into Fate's chest sending him flying out a closed door and right into the fence wall surrounding the building.

Fate coughed up some blood when he hit the wall, slowly clutching his chest as he stood he glared daggers at Ran. "You are quite impressive. I thought you were only attacking randomly not leading me around."

"YAY! I'm 'Thrilled' I have an emo -kid's respect." Ran said sarcastically while he drew a line in the dirt with his sword. "You however seem to have 'Some' intelligence."

"Some?" Fate stated narrowing his eyes slightly.

"You attacked me twice in one day, even after seeing me use that Lord level attack." Ran pointed out blatantly, causing Fate to wince when he realized that he was right, his hands still hurt even after the healing spells. "So I'll give you one chance. Undo the Petrifaction Spell and leave, and I won't kill you."

"Using a spell as strong as the one you did earlier can not be done easily. Most can only cast those level spells once a day. Who's to say you can do it again? In fact you haven't cast any spells in this battle can you even use magic right now?" Fate questioned as he stared at Ran.

Ran pointed a finger at the wall beside Fate and let fly a black lightning bolt. "Do you truly wish to tempt fate, Fate?" Ran blinked at that statement before looking at the white hair boy.

"Yeah I get that a lot." The boy said knowing what Ran was thinking simple from the look on his face. "The Jokes must be just as bad with your name."

"Yep, 'where'd he go? He just Ran off.'" Ran replied idly while neither relaxed their stances. "As nice as it is to see a person with an equally annoying name, I'll warn you now, Attack MY princess again and I'll rip you to shreds." Ran allowed his free hand to become a claw arcing with black lightning and held it before him in front of Fate.

"You're a demon!" Fate said with a gasp.

"We told you that before." Ran stated calmly.

"I simple assumed you were talking metaphorically." Fate said his eyes still wide from the shock of having fought with a demon.

"No, I am truly a Demon lord. Moreover, you are truly a fool for attacking us. NOW, make your choice." Ran said glaring at the boy as he started to let more of his aura out in the form of black flames.

Fate saw one of his cohorts taking off with Konoka and nodded. Speaking a few words in Latin, he bowed his head completely to Ran. "The spell has been undone. They will all return to normal within the hour." Ran looked back at the house and nodded he could feel the wisps of magic already starting to fade as the stoned people started to slowly regain there flesh.

However, he couldn't find Konoka's aura in the building. "You sneaky little son of a…" Ran snarled as he looked back, Fate however was already gone. "DAMNIT!" He yelled as he quickly searched out Setsuna and Negi's auras. Both were at the bath area taking off in a run he came into the area and saw hundreds, if not more, demon surrounding the two and Asuna. Setsuna just formed a pact with Negi in order to gain more power to fight the demons.

Ran stayed silent for a few moments to see what would happen, and raised an eyebrow when the girls cleared a path for Negi so he could chase after the women that took Konoka. As soon as he was gone, Ran walked forwards into the group and killed 20 demons with a single sweep of his clawed hand. "What are you low life's doing?" Ran said in a growling voice

"What our summoner wishes of us." One replied before he looked at Ran. All the demons that saw him now though gasped, as the recognized him as a demon lord and quickly fell to their knees before him. "Please forgive me Dark Lord I did not realize you were among us."

"I shall let your trespasses go under the condition you tell me where you're 'summoner' took my mate." Ran said in darkening voice. When the demons heard the word 'Mate' they all started to pale.

"T-T-To false god r-r-rock. We shale escort you if you wish." The demon said going from his knees to his head touching the rock he was standing on. All of the others that could touch their heads to the ground without drowning did the same. "If we had known she was your mate we would have defied the summons Dark Lord."

"So be it. Bring us to False God Rock. These girls are my Mates servants, if any harm comes to them it shale be I you answer to." Ran let his aura flare once to drive the point home of just how powerful he was. 'Lesser demons are so easy to scare.' he thought while he watched them all scramble around. "Setsuna, Asuna, come on we're going after Konoka."

The girls jumped a little at his display as well but quickly ran over to him when he started walking towards where Negi had run to. "Since when is Ojou-sama your mate?" Setsuna asked Ran in a whisper.

"What would you call sleeping together?" Ran asked with a smirk.

"But I was…" Setsuna started then blushed bright red.

"Yep you and her are both my mates by demon law." Ran stated out loud so that all could hear. His smirk clearly apparent but for what reason it was that was unknown. Setsuna's blush became even brighter when she saw the demons and Asuna all looking at her with wide eyes. "Now let's hurry up and get our wife back." Ran said smirking as he patted Setsuna on the back and broke into a run. Setsuna hot on his tail, if to hit him for embarrassing her or to get away from all the looks one couldn't tell.

On the shore at the far side of the lake.

Around a table sat five people. Among them were Shadow, Alex, Hiryo, and two new people. The first was a young man with long loose hanging black hair with white highlights, his eyes a pure white no irises to be seen. He wore a long black leather coat with one angel wing and one devil wing imprinted on the back over a white shirt. The next was more machine then man, he had red amour covering him almost completely only showing his face, all and all he appeared to be a red, supped up mega man.

What were they doing around the table you asked? "Full house. I win." Shadow said dropping the cards on the table, and taking the pot.

"I don't know if it's better having you around to play poker with or not Shadow." The white eyed boy said as he collected the cards to shuffle.

"Why do you say that Half?" Shadow asked while sorting out his winnings.

"Cause everything become random with you around. I win at every casino I go to but with you around I just can't get ahead." Half replied.

"No worries at least you're doing better then Matt." Hiryo said as he pointed over at the Robotic boy.

"Yeah if Robo boy here keeps it up he's going to end up in the hole by the time we go home." Shadow said with a snicker

"Yeah yeah Shadow. Now can you please lend me some more platinum coins? I'm short." Matt said while he showed that he was down to five coins left.

Shadow rolled his eyes. "Alex it's your turn to cover for Robo boy."

Alex chuckled and tossed a small pouch full of coins over to Matt. "Poker is just not your game Matt."

"It is when Shadow's not around." Matt countered. "But with his chaos aura all my calculations go out the window."

"You have to play on luck just like the rest of us," Shadow said as he collected his cards for this round., "and frankly Matt your luck SUCKS!" Shadow said causing everyone else to laugh. "Now who hid the beer?"

Back to the story.

Ran slide to a stop when he saw Negi facing off against a boy with dog like ears. "Another low level demon?" he asked himself. Ran narrowed his eyes at the boy, 'hmmm this kid has potential. He's just young right now, that's why his power's so low. Gah, not the time to be thinking about getting more subjects' Ran berated himself. Shaking his head to focus, he looked at how far he was from the lake.

Doing some quick calculations on how long it'd take at full speed Ran, decided to forgo helping Negi this time. Looking back, he saw Setsuna a head of Asuna who was a head of the demons. A sudden thought occurred to him causing a nasty grin spread across his face "All those who dared to help in the Kidnapping of one of my mates, and wish me not to kill them must help the humans who are trying to free her. Fight all that dare stand in my way. However, do not kill them. I will see to there punishment." Ran yelled back at the demons. It did exactly what he'd hoped it do as the demon gulped and started toward the dog-eared boy. Ran smirked and opened his wings.

Lifting himself into the air with a few powerful flaps, he headed for the lake. "If this keeps up were going to end up passing out from exhaustion again Ran." Ranma said as he already could feel the strain being put on there body.

'I know but it's not like we have much choice Ranma.' Ran said flew towards the lake. Looking back and to his left, he saw Negi trying to keep up. 'He sure is trying hard.'

"Probably blames himself." Ranma said as he too saw a slightly beat up Negi straining to keep up. Suddenly he saw someone else from the corner of his eye. "Ran look back to our right."

Doing so Ran had to resist the urges to face fault and start laughing at the Irony of it all. There already passing Negi and starting to catching up was Setsuna, her wings out. The thing that made Ran want to laugh was that she had two huge white feathered wings making her look like an angel. 'Heaven and hell shale descend upon our enemies.' he thought as he slowed slightly so that she could catch up. Once she did, Ran looked over at her with a slight grin. "You do realize how messed up this is going to look right?" He called over.

"What?" She asked back as they both picked up the pace to make it to the lake.

"Look at our wings and then look how it's going to look when we land in front of them." Ran said. Setsuna looked at his demonic wings then her feathered ones, and started to snicker when she pictured what looked to be an angel and devil landing side by side to rescue Konoka. "If this wasn't so serious I'd be cracking some really bad jokes right about now."

"I could imagine." Setsuna said as she focused on the alter in front of the rock sticking out of the lake. "There they are." Setsuna said pointing, however when she looked to Ran he was staring at something across the lake. "What are you looking at, do they have reinforcements?"

Ran stopped staring and snorted. "No some idiot's are playing cards on the other side of the lake." Setsuna blinked and was about to say something when Ran waved her down. "Don't worry they'll be fine. We on the other hand have to hurry she's about to finish the ritual." Ran said as he aimed downwards to get more speed Setsuna did likewise.

However, they were both too late as soon as they touched down a tower of light exploded around the rock causing the sealed demon to awaken and turn into a four-armed giant demon. Setsuna gasped and clutched her sword tightly. Ran narrowed his eyes and almost snorted. 'This is what they were all worried about? Sure he's big but he wouldn't even make senator in the dark court.' Ran thought. However, he did realize that he'd have to fight that thing and needed to have some room. "Here's the plan I'm going to use the pact card. You save Konoka-sama, Ranma's going take out the mage lady. I'll take the demon. ADEAT!" Ran yelled as he pulled his card out in a swift motion.

With flash of black and blue light Ranma and Ran took to two different directions. Ran took to the skies blazing with black energy his sword held out in front of him, the ruins glowing.

Ranma shot forward with a straight punch that connected to the sorceress that was using Konoka's power before she had a chance to react; the sudden hit made her lose he control over Konoka's body, which fell right into Setsuna's waiting arms. "Don't worry Ojou-sama you're safe now."

"Set-chan, you look like an angel." Konoka said as Setsuna pulled the gage away. And headed for land. "Wait what about Ran and Ranma?" She said remembering that she'd seen them. As soon as Setsuna landed, she pointed to the pair. "Oh my go" she was unable to finish her sentence and could only stare.

Up in the skies Ran was NOT happy. He was running on almost empty and knew he had to finish this before he ended up passing out. With Ranma separated, he was completely demon again, which meant no Ki to work with. The gauntlets helped boost him back up quite a bit but not as much as if he was still combined with Ranma. Right now, he was zipping back and forth cut gouges out of the giant but he needs something more. Then it hit him, 'That how to kill him quickly. Hehe.' "Ranma I have a plan when I say get ready to come back into me." Ran yelled.

"'K" Ranma yelled back while he finished tying and gagging the mage he'd been assigned to 'take care of'.

Ran started zipping around the giant faster and faster, in complex patterns. 'Almost, almost. GOT IT' "NOW."

"ABEAT!" They both yelled, seconds later normal Ran reappeared in the sky holding his Athame, "RAGNATA BLAST!" Ran yelled as he draws a rune in the air in front of him.

The cut on the giant's body suddenly started to glow with a deep red light, and everyone could see them to be runes like the one glowing in front of Ran. Suddenly the giant exploded into little tiny rocks and the light reseeded. A small smile spread across Ran's face as his eyes rolled up in his head and he passed out again.

To be continued.

A/N: Yay 100 reviews. I'm liked, hehe. Okay so not me but Ran is. Someone's even doing fan art on my fanfic. Hehe., I can't wait to see. As my thanks to Hirrayami for doing the picture, I offered to write him a scene in my story. He asked to see Ran take Azusa from Tenchi Muyo down a peg. However, since I could do that in the story right now, I just cooked up an Omake. So here, you are Overlord Ran VS Azusa.

Shadow's of the heart

Omake for Hirrayami

Ran VS Azusa take #1

Ran kneeled in the thrown room of the Jurai Empire. His arms and legs bound by the power of its goddess, and hundreds of little floating logs surrounding him. "Grrr, you have no RIGHT to hold me, asshole." Ran growled as the cause of his current predicament Azusa King of Jurai approached him.

"You are charged with assault and threats against The Royal House of Jurai. You are sentenced to Death." Azusa declared before the assembled masses.

Ran snorted, "As if you have the power to do THAT to me. You're barely holding me now." he pulled at his bindings and the stranded to hold, proving his point. "If I so wanted I could snap these and really beat you senseless, not simply smack you like I did last week."

"Oh and if you could break them why didn't you break out last week then?" Azusa asked in his high and mighty tone.

"Sasami asked me not to, and since she's such as cutie and great cook I didn't bother trying." Ran declared off hand. Of course as expected his comment throw Azusa into a fit of rage. Azusa ran forward and used a Jurai power enhanced punch to knock Ran to the ground. However, instead reacting Ran simple rolled back to his knees with a smirk "That's one, you only get two more chances to say sorry and let me go."

"Arrogant peon, know you're place. I am the king of the entire Jurai Empire. You are but a human." Azusa said arrogantly.

"Yeah yeah, talk big all you want you don't know shit." Ran said tiredly, as he only promised not to beat the guy if he released Ran before hitting him three times that was ALL he promised Sasami, well that and not to kill the pompous asshole. Opps strike two. "What was THAT one for?"

"Don't talk back to your betters!" Azusa yelled. Causing Ran's smirk to return to his face once more on full force.

"I don't. You just aren't better then me." Ran said with Ranma's cocky voice. 'In three.' Azusa growled at Ran. 'Two' He charged another punch and walked towards the downed boy. There was a scream to stop in the background but it was already to late 'One.'

CRACK The sound of Azusa fist impacting Ran's unmoving face was heard throughout the thrown room. "I warned you. That was you're third and FINAL chance." Ran said in low growl as black lightning raced down his form, destroying the binds that held him. "You choose the path of pain, and death." his form slowly shifted while he stood up, ebony wing exploded from his back and an equally dark tail emerged, spines running the length of it. "However fear not, for today I will not be your Reaper. You will simple reap the rewards of you misguided life."

With those last word Ran's hand shot forward in an open palm strike that throw the taller man across the room into his thrown, shattering it. "OWWW! Irony's a bitch. Looks like your ego about being on the thrown destroyed you thrown." Ran said with a dark grin spreading across his face. "Let's see what else it breaks before I break you?"

Ran crossed the distance between them in a flash; not even the lightning from the tiny logs touched him as he closed in on the emperor. "Demon Storm Fist" He yelled a he started beating Azusa, leaving black lightning arcing across his body. "How does it feel to be on the receiving end of an electric attack huh 'Emperor'?" Ran asked almost spiting the name out. Ending the attack with a kick that launched the king into the air Ran pulled back his fists into a cup on his hip "In all my many years as a Demon lord I've always held one thing true to my heart. Those who don't know compassion to the will of all peoples do not deserve the power they receive. YOU ARE UNFIT!" The whole time he was talking Ran was building up a ball of solid Black ki/mana between his palms "EBONY EXECUTION!" He yelled releasing a beam the size of an oversized beach ball at the man still in the air.

When the blast ended Azusa hit the floor of the thrown room beaten, bruised, and unable to move, but he was alive and just barely awake. Ran slowly walked towards him, his tail whipping back and forth behind him with each step. "You should be glad that you have Sasami arrogant king, for her wish is the only reason you live. Also, make note of this day, for today is the day you met Overlord Ran Hilta, Under-god of All Demon Overlords, Second only to Overlord Zenon. In battle and lived." With that said, Ran walked out of the thrown room, being sure to step on Azusa face as he left.

End Omake.


	11. Chapter 10

AN: Reposted, Sorry had a formatting flop last time.. cause i'm an idiot and was upfor two days working and getting this fixed up to send out... note to all other writers out there that try this... WAIT TILL YOU SLEEP TO TRY AND POST. Posting at 3:40 am before going to work again does not work.. the blood coming for my reads eyes is proof of that.. anyways i'm rambling Sorry again and i hope this fixes it.

Shadow s of the heart

Chapter 10

No you don t, can t love me.

Ran awoke once again in Konoka s bed. 'Shit I was hoping yesterday was a dream.' he thought to himself while looking around to take in his surrounding s. Konoka clung to his right side while Setsuna was on his left. Surprisingly she was in the same position Ran had moved her into last time they had all slept in the same bed, but Ran was sure he hadn t been awake to move her in order to calm her from her nightmares. 'Great, now she s going to expect us to be a dream guardian for her.'

"And whose fault is that?" Ranma asked as he woke up from Ran talking to himself.

'Yours.' Ran stated snidely while he slowly moved himself out of bed as to not wake the girls from there sleep. 20 minutes later, he d made it out of bed and to the door, once out of the room he started wandering the halls looking for something to eat. "Where the hell did they hide the kitchen in this place?" Ran asked to no one while he searched.

"It's at the end of the hall Ran-sama." A servant said while bowing to him.

"Huh?!" Ran said while he looked at the bowing person.

"I said it was at the end of the hall." The woman repeated.

"I heard that part I'm asking about the sama I m not you're lord. You're human." Ran said while looking at the girl.

"I am aware Ran-sama however we we re all informed of your actions last night while we were turned to stone; you not only saved us but you rescued lady Konoka. After lady Sakurazaki informed her of you're lands laws she agreed. Her father, although upset, has agreed to the union assuming you make it official by human laws." She informed.

"WHAT!?!" Ran yelled. Anyone who had still been asleep was now awake from Ran's scream. "Oh THIS SOOO can t be happening. I expected to get thrown out not engaged." Ran said while he pounded his head off the wall. The servant he d been talking with developed a sweat drop at his actions.

"What's wrong Ran-san?" Negi asked while he came around the corner to see Ran's head start to cave in the wall he d been hitting.

Ran stopped and looked at the child, Asuna standing beside him. "Ever have one of those days where the MOMENT you wake up you know you should start running and not stop until the sun sets again? And as the day goes on the feeling grows?" Ran asked, almost to himself then the people around him. Seeing them surprisingly nod in understanding, he continued. "Today is one of those days for me. ONE joke. I made ONE joke last night and now I'm engaged to two girls, that around hundreds of years younger then me." Ran declared with a sigh.

Everyone s eyes shot open in shock, including the servant's, "You're engaged? To who?"

"I made a comment that demon law stated that since me, Konoka and Setsuna all slept in the same bed we were considered mates." Asuna's eyes widened as she remembered him saying that to the demon's that had been summoned to fight her and Setsuna. "You remember." Ran commented as he saw her expression. "Well apparently Setsuna told Konoka and her Father. They agreed and engaged me to her. Right?" Ran said looking to the servant that had informed him, only to see her not there. "Huh, where'd she go?"

Unbeknownst to everyone the servant had snuck away after hearing Ran say he was engaged to not only Konoka by demon law but Setsuna as well. She was intent on telling her lord, Konoka s father, about the implications.

Negi looked at him somewhat confused but understanding at the same time. "Well you did say your laws made them your mates." Negi said trying to get Ran to understand the way Konoka s father looked at it.

"Negi that law only works if I slept with them not beside them." Ran said exasperatedly "Besides it's for low class demons so they can still get married if they don't have the money to get a dark god blessing. Zanon and I set it in place when he became an Overlord, they would just have to mate then announce it before the Darkness Cathedral and bang recognized as married. Well we set it up as they had to do some funny dances and stuff to embarrass themselves but still." Ran said a distance smile coming to his face as he remembered the good times he had in his distant past.

"WHHHHAAAATTTTTTTTTTT!?!" Everyone was cut off from their conversion was the scream echoed across the shrine grounds.

"See why I feel like running?" Ran asked, more to himself, none the less everyone around him nodded. Just as he was about to open his wings and act on that very urge Konoka and Setsuna rounded the corner of the hall way and spotted Ran.

"There you are I was worried about you when you had disappeared." Konoka said as she walked towards him.

"Errr, yeah I was just about to run for the hills when you walked around the corner." Ran said as he started to take a step back.

Konoka blinked and started to look sad. "You're leaving me?"

"Considering that WAS you're father a second ago. I don't think he's all that thrilled with me at the moment." Ran said

"Oh don t worry about him. I can take care of daddy." Konoka said happily latching on to Ran's arm. "Now that we're engaged and all."

"That's the problem." Ran muttered as he slapped his forehead,

"Nicely done Ran, now we have more engagements to deal with." Ranma said angrily.  
"With all the ones my father made for me now you too?"

'DO NOT put me in the same group with that... baka?' Ran stopped when a grin grow across his face. 'I think we should thank that baka right now Ranma cause I just got an idea.'

Nerima

Nabiki groaned as she rubbed her temples to try to fight off her ever growing headache. Life just wasn t going her ways these days, first her moneymaker had up and left causing her to lose a large amount of her income. Then not a week later Kasumi up and leaves without a word, making the house fall into disrepair. She s been force to eat takeout and at her friends house ever since due to Akane volunteering to cook ever since.

Oh, she tried to force Ranma to come back, but it turned out the little bastard was smarter then he let on. When she tried to get the polices help they had told her that he d come in all ready and told them that he was leaving, and that some people would be coming looking for him, if they did he wasn t a missing person he simple was moving away so he couldn t be tracked down by abusive parties . She'd also found out that because of his birthday making him 18 and that he had legally challenged for the right to be head of the Saotome clan as well as the Martial Art school of Anything goes the fight was legitimate, Nodoka and Genma we're cast out from the clan. They weren't Saotome's anymore.

Having checked it was true, Nodoka and Genma were ronin. The only Saotome's left were Ranma and this Ran person. Trying to find this Ran person was another dead end for Nabiki, he had no address no work history, nothing. If was like looking for a ghost, worse yet any time she thought she was getting close to finding SOMETHING, her search would be restricted by confidence file lock out.

*BANG* Nabiki looked up at the noise; 'great there she goes again.' ever since Ranma had left Akane had been getting angrier and angrier. With no one to vent her anger on a lot more things had been getting destroyed, causing the Dojo to go farther and farther into the red. That and her first attempt to cook destroyed the kitchen so that caused even more disaster.  
Nabiki admitted that since the break off she did feel sorry for Akane because she took it hard. 'Hard my ass she cried until morning.' Nabiki snorted 'I almost felt bad, Until I heard her ranting, what a brat. If I were Ranma I would ve left earlier.'

*Bang* *crumble* Akane snorted as she wiped the sweat from her brow. 'The JERK! How dare he ? He belongs to ME! Ranko is MY TOY! How dare he take my toy away?' Akane thought angrily 'when Nabiki finds him I'm got to pound him so hard he ll be purple then I'll get that locking ladle and lock him inside Ranko then she'll be all mine.'

(Author shudders: Sorry I had to do that. *Waves hands in warding gesture.* Whoa don t get pissed at me here people. )

Ucchans

"Hurry up with that bag Konatsu!" Ukyo yelled up the stair. She was just finishing packing up her belonging to go chase Ranma. She believed she'd finally figured out Ranma's plan . "Ranchan's waiting for me to find him so we can get married."

"I'm coming Ukyo-sama." The male Kunoichi said as he finished descending the steps of the restraint. "But are you sure that this is a good idea? Ranma-sama looked really serious when he left like that. I do not believe he wanted to be followed."

"Of course it is, he loves me. He just had to get rid of all the other fiances so that we could be together." Ukyo said with conviction.

"Then why didn't he just come to you after everything was finished?" Konatsu asked while he finished setting all the stuff together.

"He's testing me to see how far I'm willing to go to marry him. Then when we get married we can settle down and open a restraint and have kids..." Ukyo trailed off into her own little world while Konatsu stared at her with a sweet drop.

"What was it I liked about this girl again?" Konatsu asked himself in a hushed whisper while he watched her start to drool a little and glaze in her eyes deepened.

"That's what we'd like to know." Said a voice behind him. Spinning around while grabbing the hilt of his kodachi dagger Konatsu came face to face with two people he wasn t expecting to see.

"Ryoga?" Ryoga grinned and nodded when his name was spoken. "and who's you re friend?"

"This is Cylia Blodmore my girlfriend and partner." Ryoga said with a blush.

"Excuse me, girlfriend?" Konatsu asked while blinking. Ryoga nodded. "Isn't the age difference a bit much for you two?" he asked in a slight whisper. Needing to say it aloud but not really wanting to say it at all.

"Asks the boy dressed like a woman." Cylia shot back quickly, causing Konatsu to blush slightly for both being heard and being scolded. "Regardless Ryoga-sama defeated me; therefore I m his to command. Ran-sama ordered me to be his guide, things progressed from there. Although a little to slowly for my tastes but none the less."

"Ran-sama?" Konatsu asked.

"Come with us and I ll explain everything." Ryoga said starting to walk towards the kitchen before Cylia pulled him towards the door. "Heh heh he." Ryoga chuckled nervously before letting Cylia lead them all out into the street. Once there Ryoga turned until he found Konatsu again. "Ok, Ran-sama is Ranma s other personality. A demon lord and our boss. Shortly after Saffron Ranma revealed Ran, who had yet to say his name, to me and we went in to the netherworld. Well one of them anyways. Ranma and Ran took over that netherworld and proclaimed it as their own, the Hilta sector if I remember correctly." Ryoga said while looking to Cylia. Seeing her nod that he remembered the area correctly he turned back to Konatsu who nodded for him to continue "Anyways, he had to take over the region for us to return, once back I swore to make up for my mistakes, considering while I was down there he had a healer magically fix my mental problems. It took her four days of work just to fix my damned obsessive behavior. I still have anger issues but I m getting over it. So now I work as a relic hunter for Ran-sama and Cylia here is my guide for one place to the next, as well as magical support."

"I see, however why are you telling me this?" Konatsu asked while leaning on the wall outside of Ucchan.

"Simple, Ran-sama is reluctant to take power of this world for himself, as he is a supporter of the concept of free will. However, this creates the problem of having too few servants to support him in battle as well as run missions for him. Because of this we have decided that while running missions for him we will amass his army for him." Cylia explained.

Konatsu blinked a couple of times, before turning to Ryoga. "You're joking right. I admit that Ranma has done to interesting thing. But being a demon, her being a demon of some sort and now making an army?" he scoffed. "Look, if you PROVE to me that this isn't some joke, and that you really are making an army with demons and all and I'll join ya."

"Cylia transform back to you succubus form for him." Ryoga said while stepping back to give her room.

"Yes master." closing her eyes Cylia dropped her transformed human state and purple wings appeared from her back, clothing shifted into a purple bra, panties, boots while she lifted half a foot into the air, and stayed there. Out of her lower back and snake like tail appeared, with its head at the end, which started to sway back and forth.

Konatsu fell to the ground gasping. "W-w-wha?"

"How's that for proof?" Ryoga asked with a smirk. All he resaved was a nod in response.

Ran.

Ranma walked into the main audience chamber were Konoka father was waiting, both wore faces of seriousness. "This is not acceptable." The leader of the Konoe clan said trying to hold in his anger.

"Couldn't agree more old man." Ranma said as he tried to hold in his own yelling.

"You are to marry my daughter not the Sakurazaki girl." Konoe-sama said.

"Truth be told as beautiful as both your daughter and Setsuna-chan may be I can't marry either." Ranma said while Ran helped control his raging emotions. He held up his hand to forestall the chief from saying anything. "Don't take that wrong Konoe-domo I don't mean it in any offensive way however my father arranged over 2 dozen would be wives for me all ready and I need to settle those debits first before I can even think about marriage to anyone. As for what Ran said the other night, he apologizes for the misunderstanding and says that although the law really does exist it's far more detailed then what really happened, and does not apply to him. Furthermore, it was said to bring the fighting between the demons that were summoned and the humans around to an end, as well as embarrass Setsuna because he felt like he needed a laugh. *Thawk* OWW!"

"I KNEW IT!" Setsuna yelled after throwing her shoe at Ranma.

"Hey don't kill the messenger. I'm just saying what he told me too." Ranma said as he massaged the back of his head.

"Humph" was all he got in response.

Fighting down the sweat drop Konoe-domo looked at Ranma "So neither is he engaged to Konoka nor Setsuna you also had many engagements out there to settle on your own?"

"That's bout the gist of it." Ranma said while looking up at the chief.

"And why didn t he tell me this himself?"

"Who are you more likely to believe a human or a demon?" Ranma countered simple.

"I see." He said simple before seeing Konoka almost hurt look. "Do you not wish to marry my Daughter?"

"I just said old man, it s not a matter of wish or not I CA..."

"Then the engagement stands." Konoe-domo said cutting Ranma off before could continue.

"WHAT!?!" Ranma shouted.

"You just said you were looking to settle all the other engagements so once that's done you may marry my daughter. She certainly seems to agree with the idea." He replied nonchalantly.

"GRRR! You re worse then Soun-baka." Ranma growled, "You listen then make decisions for everyone else. I'm out of here I got better things to do then listen to a demented old man. I'm not engaged to ANYONE!" Ranma said while he stormed out of the room aura blazing an almost purple colour from the red of anger and blue of confidence.

As Ranma walked away he couldn't seem to get himself to calm down, even Ran was angry about this turn of events, "This is NOT going well. We have a war to attend yet and we can t have this little girl dragged into it.."

'I know that Ran but how are we going to keep her out of it if she's following us around?' Ranma asked as he continued to walk along the path out of the temple. His aura knocking away any that the Chief sent to stop him not that he noticed. He finally stopped outside the grounds when he came face to face with Setsuna. "What?" Ranma asked in a deadly calm voice despite the inferno of ki burning around him.

"You intend to abandon Ojou-sama?" She asked equally calm but still griping her sword handle tightly.

"I'm about to go off killing a lot of things because of a promise I made before coming here. I have no intentions of letting you little girls join me in a war for this world." Ranma said.

"Why did you come here if you intend to leave just as soon afterwards?"

"It was never my intent to become this involved with you when I saved that girl the first time. I simple couldn't leave you in that position, I'm no hero I simple do things for my own reasons." Ranma said as Ran had explained that they were more anti-heroes because they did not run around looking for people to save, they'd just help everyone they saw around them.

"What reasons are those?" Setsuna asked, things were too out of control while these boys were around. He always seems to know too much and he'd make her always feel like a child.

"Since I found out who you people were Ran wanted to learn magic in increase our fighting power for the war we were going to end up in, then that damned pact appeared, the demon attack, having to blow up the rock golem, and now the engagement. We both agree learning a few attack spells ain't worth having to deal with it. Wouldn't have minded up till that old fool engaged us against our will. Konoka we could easily forgive as she wasn't aware of the pact was a caging spell, however her old man is ASKING for a beating like no other." Ranma and Ran said almost as one.

Setsuna blinked as she her hands started to slip from the sword grip. "You wanted to learn magic? But don t you think you are strong enough as it is?"

Ranma shook his head. "As Ran put it. 'The only reason for losing any battle you get in is you were too cocky for your own good and didn t search for the power to win when you have the chance.' However we can no longer waste our time here looking for more power, too many lives depend on our return isn t that right Matsumoto-san." Ranma said over his shoulder as Rangiku stepped out from behind a wall behind them.

"You knew I was there?" She asked as she narrowed her eyes at him.

"I've always known when you were nearing in on me, but as I said I was looking for a way to get stronger. And with this body you couldn t realize it was me until I started pumping up my aura and demonic energy so you could pinpoint it." Ranma said looking behind him with a slight smirk.

"Like you did last night?"

"Bingo." Ranma said. "But enough with the pleasantries you aren t here for them. If you re here that means the Shinigami need help for something bigger then they let on."

"Yes, from the reports I got, Orihime has been taken by the Arrancar, Kurosaki has requested Urahara to make a way for him to travel to Huenco Mundo as the Shinigami have decided to wait on there moving in on the Arrancar strong hold." Rangiku explained.

Ranma and Setsuna s eyes started to spin. "Wait a second you lost me I'll let Ran talk." Ranma said as he closed his eyes and started switching over to his other personality. Matsumoto sweat dropped at the fact that little explanation lost both of the children that quickly.

Ran opened his eyes, as they were now red with a blue ring around the outside showing he was in control but Ranma was still awake and listening. "So you're saying that the Soul Society will not assist in Ichigo's rescues attempt?"

"That is correct we will wait for the gates to be finished before we go." Rangiku said, slightly in awe at the difference between Ranma and Ran s personalities both in way of speaking and in how quickly he understood things.

"So if you're against the rescues why are you telling us about it?" Ran said while narrowing his eyes at her as if he could SEE she was hiding something.

"My orders from the general were to not allow you to find out about the gate being opened in one week at Urahara s shop that Kurosaki, Ishida, and Yasutora are using to travel there." Rangiku explained. Setsuna blinked at this as she just basically told them exactly what she wasn t suppose to tell them.

"So in other words you guys want me to go help chick-bangs, the giant, and carrot top stay alive while they go save the ditz from those half mask dorks in white jumpers. Because you guys need to wait for the gates to get opened so you and make it there?" Ran said while looking at her broadly.

"In a nut shell, yes but if the Quincy finds out he will not help Kurosaki. They are , his connection to us causes friction. If he is not supported by us then Ishida Uryuu can assist Ichigo."

"Fine I'll do it on the stipulation that you have to protect this girl behind me as well as the one called Konoe Konoka until my return. For every scratch I find on them a Shinigami will losses their head." Ran said simply while he turned and headed off to the train station.

Setsuna blushed slightly while Rangiku gulped as sweated slightly at how menacing Ran could be with a simple comment. "Why do I feel like we just made a deal with the devil himself?" Rangiku asked out loud while staring at the almost disappeared form of Ran.

"He is a demon lord, so I'm guessing it's pretty close to the same thing." Setsuna answered back. Suddenly Konoka descended the steps having chased after Ranma after scolding her father for chasing him off. "Ojou-sama?"

"Where's Ran-kun?" Konoka asked worriedly "and who s this lady?"

"My name is Matsumoto Rangiku." Rangiku said while looking at the girl. "I'm assuming that you are Konoe Konoka?" She asked while looking over the slight brown haired girl, who nodded in response. "Then I'm to be your body guard until Ran's return from the mission we asked him to do." she explained while bowing.

"Where did you ask him to go?" Konoka asked nervously.

"We asked him to go to Huenco Mundo to assist in the rescues of a friend of ours from enemy hands." Rangiku said while trying to make it sound simple as to not worry the girls. However she wasn t completely aware of that the girls had seen him fight already. That and Setsuna know that if this woman was nervous just talking with Ran then they would have to be desperate to ask for his help. Intoning just how dangerous this mission must be.

5 blocks away.

Ran sneezes. "I wonder who s talking about us?"

'Who do you think is talking about us!' Ranma-chan answered in announced. 'Our new fiancee.'

"Oh quite your bitching. It's just one more girl we have to watch, besides as soon as this one sees how much chaos follows us around I m sure she ll see it s to much trouble. So don t take your pissiness about being turned girl out on me." Ran said, "Besides we've been lucky about not changing all the time as is."

Ranma-chan signed. 'You're right I guess. It's been like a week since the last time I was randomly splashed so I guess I was getting to comfortable in my normal body. Errr, well about as normal as we get at least.'

Ran chuckled as he continued to lounge in the back of there mind. "I know what you mean but at it was bound to happen sooner or later. It is called a curse for a reason. Besides my magic can only reduce the water magnetism so much, and it has been a full week that we were male, like it, or hate it we will still turn female until I find a counter-curse."

'I hate it, but I'll deal.' Ranma-chan thought while she continued toward the train station to get a ticket. 'I wonder how Ichigo's doing with his training?'

"My guess is he's doing better with his training then we have done." Ran responded. "We still should hurry though. He's still not strong enough to deal with many attacks."

'Okay then why exactly are we taking the train if we need to hurry? Wouldn't it be faster to teleport there?' Ranma-chan asked as they walked up to the station, and he stopped right in front of the ticket booth, only stopping from getting a ticket to wait on Ran's reply.

"In theory that would be best however you have to remember that we are both still drained and will need time to recover before fighting again, as well as the fact that teleport such a distant would likely kill us both even in full health. And since we have money to do this now let's not bother with walking and enjoy a nice train ride." Ran said as he nudged Ranma towards the ticket booth, with in a few minutes they were both in their sit and on their way to meet up with Ichigo once more.

To be continued.


End file.
